Drinks With Screen Legend Isabelle Huppert, Talking About Her New Movie 'Frankie'

For me, wine is something to do when meeting people and being outside. I never open a bottle of wine at my own house. Sometimes a beer, but just a few sips. But wine, never. But when I'm traveling, yes. In Italy, I like to drink Chiantis, when I'm in Argentina I drink Argentine wines. Spanish wines in Spain.

Yes. I love Caipirinhas and mojitos when I'm traveling. In Korea, I love that alcohol that looks like milk (Makgeolli) - love it. But I only have it when I'm there. I've been to northern countries, like Iceland and Finland, and like to have a drink there. But I don't like vodka. I like caviar - but not vodka.

I met the director, Ira Sachs, a few years ago and we said we wanted to work together. He decided to write the screenplay for me, and didn't tell me anything about it beforehand, I had no idea what it was going to be. When I read it, I thought it was a beautiful script. Very deep and touching. Very smart. There is a lot going on, lots of stories running together. And I knew he wanted to shoot it in Portugal, which I though was a good idea - for all the people to be gathered in this neutral land where they are all foreigners.

The landscape is beautiful. The woods have their special power. It's spiritual, magical. It was very inspiring. I spent a month there shooting the film.

She's a sick person, but by choice, we show someone vulnerable but not a victim. There's nothing really sweet in this movie. Everything is touching and moving, but it is not sweet. At some point, the ex-husband tells Frankie, "not everything revolves around you." People say harsh things to each other most of the time, that's what this film is about. The textures we can call life - jealousies, little secrets, all the things you don't really dare say.

I like the scene where I'm walking in the woods and I join a birthday party with all these unknown people. Frankie is a bit displaced - there is warmth, but also isolation. She has a very strong feeling of her own loneliness. That's what I like about Ira's films. Everything is very much written and elaborate, but he films it as though he catching all these moments randomly, by chance. It's a contrast between something highly shaped and thought through, and something very spontaneous. He is a master of this combination.

It's a very cruel scene. She doesn't think much of him - a cameraman who wants to be a director. It starts from the moment she says, "oh, you're the friend." The scene can almost stop there. She's almost saying I'm going to cut your head off in two minutes. She wants to make it clear it's not the right moment and wants to get rid of him. Frankie is very cruel, but the scene is also very funny in a way. She is almost like the director within the film - she wants to orchestrate everything. But sometimes things don't go the way she anticipates.

Its a good question. I dont know if your brain works differently, when you act in a different language, but you are slightly different person - not totally, but slightly. What I like about this film, is that I shift from English to French very naturally. It flows.

Why not? There's room for everything. I've done appearances on tv, but never a regular series, flowing from one episode to another. There is a demand for these shows. Personally, though, I am not a television viewer. I don't have the time. I don't know where people find the time to watch all these episodes. I think they do it at night and don't sleep. I got hooked, I watched it all night through - that's what people tell you. That doesn't happen to me. When I have spare time, I'd rather see a movie.