Lea Seydoux

This is why I became an actress. So that people will take care of me. To be an actress is a refuge. You are taken everywhere, stay in wonderful hotels, everyone looks after you.

I love challenge. I love to be afraid before a film, before acting. I think always I want to experience fear. I've become addicted to this feeling.

I don't like modernity. I don't have television or the Internet at home. The Internet scares me. I can't drive a car.

I'm not reading reviews and critics. I don't care. I guess I'm still a little on my own planet.

I was putting forward too much of myself when I was singing.

In America it's good to show people you are fine, you're healthy, you're sporty, you're happy to do things, to live. And in France it's more like you don't have to show you have success.

I see society as something dangerous, and you have to save yourself from the rules. I think acting is the way I save myself.

I like to learn things from other cultures. I'm curious. It's exciting to be in an unknown world, in a way.

I think that I'm shy and I judge myself. But at the same time, I also have big contradictions. I can be sometimes sure of myself as well. I'm not always fragile and vulnerable. I can feel tough and strong.

In America, you don't have to be weak, you have to be strong.

When a director you admire says that he wants to work with you, it's always a compliment, very good for your ego.

As an actor, it's up to you to show that you can do something else. For me, the interesting actors don't always go where you expect to find them.

Male directors always project their own desire of women - how they want a woman to dress, to do her hair. With a woman director, it's more a projection of herself.

I don't really wear makeup every day. I feel like being an actress - we wear a lot of makeup - but when I am not working, I need to let my face breathe and be very comfortable.

I love being in the States because there's an emphasis on work. People are enthusiastic. They put heart into things.

In America, they are very respectful of your work. People are not judgmental. They like difference - to be different is a force. In France, you have to be like the girl next door.

I like a man who can respect a woman. When he's real attentive, I think that is very manly. To respect a woman is divine.

I've always felt that Americans are very in the moment. There's not so much melancholia and mystery as there is in France. Everything must be understood. Everything must be analyzed.

For me, cinema's like a language - everyone has their own form of it.

I see that people now recognize me in the street. But it doesn't change me in the depth of my being.

Actually, I started to become an actress because I met someone who was just a friend and I found his life wonderful, I thought, Oh my god, you can travel, you're free, you can do what you want, you're the boss. And then I met an actor and I was in love with him.

Whether you're in a blockbuster or an art film, you have to be able to adapt.

I would love to take more risks - have pink hair - but it doesn't look right on me.

I'm not as beautiful as a model.

Even in between takes, you emerge yourself. So you don't have a life for six months.