Catherine Deneuve aside, you can pretty much thank Julie Delpy for keeping the American obsession with French women alive and kicking. There's a reason we liked the 1995 Linklater-directed indie rom com Before Sunrise so much—Delpy's Celine is hot, sophisticated, and witty, not one of those Katherine Heigl-type heroines who mistake tripping down some stairs for "being cute." This month, Before Midnight, the insanely anticipated—it's been nine freakin' years!—third installment of the series drops in on Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine, now in their early 40s with kids, and working through some_ Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf_-level marital strife while summering in Greece. If that sounds like a turnoff, let us remind you there's still plenty of bantering and philosophizing on postcard-worthy European side streets, and Delpy is charming as ever. That latter part is evidenced quite convincingly here.
GQ: You, Hawke, and the trilogy's director, Richard Linklater, shacked up together in a hotel room to write Before Midnight. Was there anything left in the minibar?** **
Julie Delpy: We didn't drink alcohol, fortunately! We did eat Greek salad for lunch and dinner every day, and lots of Greek sweets. Mostly, we just worked like crazy for two months. If an idea only works for one person, we forget it. Even if two people like the idea, but say, I don't like something I'm supposed to say [onscreen], they have to make the argument for it, convince me.
**GQ: **That's so democratic. Very Greek!
Julie Delpy: It's important to check each other. I'm the barking dog in the room. I'm like, "Hey, that's chauvinistic, you fuckers!" and they love it. It makes them laugh, you know? I'm such a feminist. But not in a wearing overalls and hating men kind of way. I love men. I was raised by feminists, so it's digested. Why am I even justifying myself? I'm a feminist.
**GQ: **Me too. No justification necessary. But now I am going to ask you about going topless in the movie. Sorry. Bad timing.
Julie Delpy: I wanted it to be realistic! Sometimes I see films where people have sex with a bra on. I mean, what country do they come from? I don't think I've ever had sex with a bra on in my life, except maybe once. It's not the most comfortable thing to be acting topless. I've never actually showed my body that much, even though I'm a French actress. It was a big deal for me to do it. This movie isn't fantasy. This is a film for people who can handle a pair of tits.
**GQ: **That should go on the movie poster.
Julie Delpy: Some people were like, "It's not feminist. You're showing your tits and he's not showing his ass." But I remember my mom in the seventies, and how all the fights for feminism were about being topless and not having to wear a bra at the beach. Isn't it the people who are hiding women behind layers of clothes who are the misogynists? I'm a real person, so it's a statement to say, "Alright, I'm a forty-year-old woman, and this is what you get with no plastic surgery. Not even plucking my eyebrows."
**GQ: **It's pretty rare to see a movie about a couple in their early 40s. Even a hot one.
Julie Delpy: In Hollywood any woman over forty is basically buried alive already. It's funny, in a year, I could probably play Christian Bale's mother, but I'm already too old to play Clint Eastwood's girlfriend.
GQ: In the first installment, Before Sunrise, Jesse and Celene meet on a train. Does that kind of thing even happen anymore? Do people still talk to strangers?
Julie Delpy: I hope people still meet like that. Though if Celene and Jesse had met now, at twenty-two, they probably would have just friended each other on Facebook. But in 1993, when the first film was made, I didn't have an e-mail address. I didn't even have a computer, because I was very late with computers. Actually, I was reading an article about this—I love science, so I read only science, and history—but it was saying that using social networks is actually very bad. Because, genetically we're supposed to be attracted to partners that have a very different immune system, and that you can't judge on the Internet.
GQ: It's smell, right?
Julie Delpy: Yeah, it's basically smell. We're attracted to people who will give us a baby with the strongest immune system. The Internet could lead to a lot of people who are genetically similar having kids with shitty immune systems, and everyone is going to die. It could be the end of our species, really.
**GQ: **So how can a man approach a woman on a train without seeming like a creep?
Julie Delpy: I was want to say something dirty, but I can't...
**GQ: **Please do!
Julie Delpy: Okay: Go down on them! That's my answer. No, really: what can I say? If you're creepy, you're creepy. If you're a creep, don't try to pick up a woman on the train. Don't try to pick up anyone, because it will be creepy.