It’s Wednesday night, and Élo die Bouchez and I are in a West Village restaurant. The dark-haired actress has just flown in from Paris and jet lag is closing in, but she’s graciously agreed to answer my questions about “The Imperialists Are Still Alive!” opening Friday.
It’s a black comedy set in downtown Manhattan, with Bouchez playing Asya, a successful visual artist living the fast life. A childhood friend has disappeared, allegedly abducted by the CIA, a fact that makes her paranoid about being tracked by Big Brother. She also finds herself romantically involved with Javier, a Mexican Ph.D. student.
“I was in Paris, and I was trying to decide if I should commit to a big French movie that I wasn’t too sure about,” she says, nursing a glass of water. (I splurged on a Coke.) “The same night I had to make my decision I received the script for [‘Imperialists’]. I read it very quickly and decided to do the movie. It was much more like what I wanted to do.”
Bouchez, who turned 38 Tuesday, won the French version of the Oscar for André Téchiné’s “Wild Reeds” (1994). And she picked up Cannes’ best-actress award for Erick Zonca’s “The Dreamlife of Angels.” (1998).
US audiences might best know her for two TV series: “Alias,” in which she was an assassin for the CIA, and Showtime’s lesbian drama “The L Word.”
She and her partner, musician Thomas Bangalter, and their two children (ages 3 and 9) divide their time between California and Paris.
“I always wanted to be an actress,” she says. “I started off as a modern dancer. Then when I was 15, I started to be a model in commercials.” When she was 16, she made her first movie, “Stan the Flasher” (1990), the final film helmed by the legendary director-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg (Charlotte’s father).
Directors Bouchez would like to work with include Woody Allen, Claire Denis, Michael Winterbottom, Steven Soderbergh and Olivier Assayas.
“The Imperialists Are Still Alive!” by first-time director-writer Zeina Durra, opens with a long scene in which Bouchez stands facing the camera, wearing only a head scarf.
Did she feel vulnerable doing it? “This scene was the first we shot, so you have no choices. You just jump.”