Isild Le Besco

“It's a big part of being an actress, to play with your whole body. It suits me.”

PLAYBOY.COM: You seem unafraid to express yourself emotionally or physically.

ISILD LE BESCO: My first film was La Puce, a short I made with Emmanuelle Bercot. When I first auditioned for the film, I was probably 14, and I said, I don't want to be nude, not at all. Now, it's a big part of being an actress, to play with your whole body. It suits me. In life, I'm also not afraid about anything. Some people are afraid of that; some people like it.

PLAYBOY.COM: It's not just the way you reveal yourself sexually in your films. Your characters are often wild, unpredictable -- people who upset the social norms.

LE BESCO: I think it's just a force that I'm catching, in a way, I don't know where, that I give to films, to characters, or to my films that I make. It's catching a force that I have to give back.

PLAYBOY.COM: Are there autobiographical aspects to your work?

LE BESCO: Everything I do is together. Everything I do is part of me.

PLAYBOY.COM: You stand out because of your exotic looks, but you seem to have a special relationship with the camera.

LE BESCO: It depends on who's handling the camera. [Laughs] I have a special kind of way. I didn't begin at a very young age. I'm just being very careful about my work, my projects, and watching what other actors are doing. When I'm not doing films, I'm just different.

PLAYBOY.COM: What is your family's background?

LE BESCO: The family name comes from Brittany. I also have origins from Algeria and Vietnam.

PLAYBOY.COM: You've made four films with Benoit Jacquot, including your most recent, The Untouchable. Do you have a special rapport with him?

LE BESCO: What's great about Benoit is he likes people for who they are. Because I've worked with him, I guess I can go somewhere he didn't expect. Because we've worked together a lot, we can go somewhere dangerous sometimes.

PLAYBOY.COM: One significant difference between French and Hollywood films: French movies focus a lot more on the inner lives of young women.

LE BESCO: Yes, it's true, a lot of our films we make here are smaller, in scale or scope, and they don't cost a lot of money. We go to somebody, to true women, rather than action, fire or killing. Also, the French language brings you more easily to this kind of consciousness; a portrait of this woman's soul. In English, I don't know why, it's not so much about soul, it's about something else, but it's not derivative, it's just different.

Photo: Richard Baltauss/Corbis

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