“The difference between the extras here and in France is the French extras read books. Actually, they hide the book and pretend that they’re acting. Here (in Hollywood), you can see everybody wants his break.”

Right now I’m the most famous silent movie actress in the world and I want to keep that for me. So I hope there’s not going to be any other silent movies.

Marlene Dietrich for the way there was something so unique about her – the way she entered into a frame and everybody looks at her and the way she winks and looks up.

I’m okay. Nobody’s bothering me. Everyone’s very kind, and very polite. I don’t feel like my whole life changed.

My parents were not pushy or anything like that. I think my mom was still expecting me to be an astronaut, but now she is very happy that I’m not doing that.

A character is never entirely white or black, there’s never entirely right or wrong. You have to realize sometimes you face something, and then you change your mind, or then you realize you were wrong.

I spent hours on the internet looking at how glamorous actresses winked and how they would put their hand on their waist, and I was told to look at how they would walk in a room and how her body takes place of everything.

I read Gloria Swanson’s autobiography just because I wanted to know what it was like in the time.

I guess I’m the perfect young lead actress. I’m not Chloe Sevigny – I’m not really a character actress. Some actors have “character” faces.

Even in the very beginning when she would bump into George Valentine and people would start taking pictures of her, she never thought “I’m with George Valentine. I need to get a picture with him.” She’s like “oh that’s funny. Everyone’s taking pictures!”

I tried to find a character and how I would be an American actress in the 30s. But if this was a talking movie [The Artist], I’m sure she would be exactly the same for me.

I really enjoyed being Peppy Miller. She was an amazing character and her energy followed me everywhere. When I talk about her I want to be her again.

Maybe I’ll put my iPod in two minutes before. But truly, I’ve listened to actors say that they loved to listen to music before a shot, and I really understand that now because it puts you in the mood and gives you energy.

Of course, when you work on a character, you try to understand her. You feel that everything she does has a reason.

For us, as actors, and even for the director, it gave us a sense of authenticity to what we were doing because we were talking about Hollywood and we were in Hollywood.

Here, you go to the supermarket and you have wipes to clean your hands before shopping. No, we don’t have that in France, but we recycle.

In France, it’s always about life, normal life. We always stick with these realistic things. So when French people are dreaming about American movies, they go and see the thrillers, and Westerns, and science fiction, huge entertaining movies.

I mean, stand up you’re by yourself and it’s live and when you’re acting, unless you’re doing a monologue, you’re interacting with somebody else. Even if you’re doing a monologue you’re saying it to somebody and it’s not live so you can do it a few times.

I think personal growth has much to do with acting ability.

I love telling stories and acting and entertaining people. I don’t want to make fun of people.

One of the things I like about acting is that, in a funny way, I come back to myself.

I still do my comedy and my performance stuff and my acting so it’s not all-consuming. But I do find myself drawing more and more these days.

Movie acting suits me because I only need to be good for ninety seconds at a time.

I love playing half squid/half crab guy because you can get away with a level of acting that if you tried it anywhere else they’d arrest you for crimes against acting.

That’s what I always enjoyed about acting, the real adrenalin rush. My heart – still before I go on stage – crashing out of my chest. That’s thrilling to me.