Bérénice Bejo: Scripts are precious

(Cover) - EN Movies - Bérénice Bejo felt "enchanted" after reading the script for The Past.

The Artist star plays a mother whose Iranian husband leaves her to return to his homeland. She then embarks on a new relationship and asks for a divorce, which forces her estranged spouse to face reality and return to see her in Paris.

Bérénice was thrilled to work with writer-director Asghar Farhadi and cherished every moment when she first laid eyes on the script.

"I had to wait a month before I received it..." she told flicks and bits.

"When I finally got hold of it, I picked it up like a jewel, a rare object that I was lucky to have in my hands [laughs]. I found everything in it that I liked in his previous films. A mood, characters who aren’t just monochrome, and who always retain a degree of mystery, and a complex story which continually makes the spectator change his or her mind. I finished reading it enchanted."

Bérénice has also recalled meeting Asghar to discuss the project for the first time.

She began to doubt whether she was right to play the role of Marie.

"We met two hours before I took a flight, and I’ve never done a test like that! Asghar was looking for something in my face, I didn’t know what," she explained. "Then he put some cotton wool in my mouth, he darkened my forehead, he worked on the corners of my mouth. To the point where I said to the make-up artist, 'If he wants to change my face that much, he might as well find someone else.' [Laughs] We hardly spoke on the day of the tests. Just a little about the character. And when I left, I knew next to nothing."

Bérénice hosted the Cannes Film Festival's opening and closing ceremonies last year. The star returned this year for a screening of The Past.