Mathieu Amalric on finding the character of Jean-Dominique Bauby:

“I think it was first the meeting with Julian [Schnabel] and the necessity he had to do the film. We spent four days in his home and we didn’t even know each other and it was Thanksgiving, so we mostly cooked and he showed me where he surfed and where he did his painting and things like that. Then there was the script. We read it and then we started talking and he told me a lot about the moment when his father died, the fear of death that he saw in his eyes, he gave me a poem his father wrote just before dying… things that were quite intimate and the first thing I thought was, ‘How can I be allowed to do a film on this story?’ But when I saw for Julian it was so important and a huge part of his life, and the book became such a symbolic object for him, that’s what put me in this story. Then, of course, I found that was in the script, it was a great idea from Ronald [Harwood], let’s be in the head of this man. When he awakes, he doesn’t know what happened to him, he doesn’t know the face he has, so we’re going to stay in his head and the only thing we can know about him are his inner thoughts.”

Amalric on acting with only one eye open:

“When we started shooting the inner thoughts, Bauby is not onscreen and I was sort of completely in his head because we did the inner thoughts at the same time, we didn’t do it during the editing. The other actors had to act with the lens, so I couldn’t help them so we [did] this idea - why don’t I go in another room with a monitor so I can see the frame and the actors? And I have a mic, and Julian told me to say whatever I want. I react to the actors and actresses mostly [laughs], all of those beautiful nurses, and I tried to remember the book and the sense of humor from this guy. That was the first time, and then when I was onscreen… in fact, when we shot in the real hospital some members of the medical crew in the hospital took care of Jean-Dominique ten years ago, and some of the actors in the film are real therapists that took care of Jean-Dominique. So I would always ask them if I was believable, how he put his hand, which muscles could he move, the eye, and things like that. They were really my guide[s] and then it still took five hours of make-up on, so we had a dental prosthesis that would twist my mouth very deeply and just a little blood in the eye. It took three minutes. I tried to stay like that all day just to feel what it’s like to be forgotten. You can’t speak, you can’t move, and people forget you.”

On contemplating his own mortality after shooting the film:

“No. There’s one thing that I do know every day since shooting this film, it’s stupid, but I spend about two minutes every day moving my hand and [I] just look at it. I’m amazed that if I think I want to move my hand then I can move it. I try not to forget that it’s quite a miracle what the brain can do; that and also the quickness of the thought.”

Amalric on whether he’d want to be revived from a similar state as Jean-Dominique Bauby:

“Of course not, but sometimes… the pleasure there is to stay in bed all day reading or thinking. I remember when I was a bit younger and I was looking at all of the great authors and each time they were sick when they were kids, so they went into a sanitarium and stayed for three months on a bed reading. I thought, ‘Wow, they’re lucky.’ Of course they became great authors; they had time to think. We never have time to think, it’s awful. That’s also what I did during this film, that’s why I didn’t want to move. I was in this position of observing and thinking, but the five senses, mainly the sense of touch, you need that.”

Mathieu Amalric on whether he wants to return to the director’s chair and what’s next:

“Yes, because I’m not really an actor.; I mean, it’s not my first job. I started in movies when I was 17 as a trainee A.D. and an assistant editor. I did all of the jobs and I directed my short films. I directed three films and each time I hope it’s the last time I have to act so I have time to do my film. I’m hoping to get my film about French Burlesque started in March, but a big problem on me recently - and I can’t talk about it - it’s a role that I can’t refuse. My film is just an ancient producer of French television that disappears for five or six years and when the film starts he comes back to France for a six day tour and he comes back with those women from the Burlesque shows. There’s something that I find very compelling in the fact that they’re supposed not to have the right body. Everybody says too old or too fat, or too small tits or stupid things like that, and they are just so funny and exciting and it’s almost political, you know.”