Charlotte Gainsbourg: A Ballad of Intimacy

For example, you made a film with your father about incest …

That film’s not about incest. Not really, anyway. It was about a father and daughter, and he had some problems. We did a song about it – Lemon Incest.

And it’s with precisely that that you address social taboos.

I’m not out to shock people. I don’t get involved in something because I think, okay, this is an issue that’s not spoken about in our society, so it’s my job to do it. I was also in The Cement Garden. That film deals with incest within a family, between a brother and a sister. But in general, I think you have to be excited about a particular issue, and I think something intense has to happen in dramatic films. Something that challenges you.

What are stronger, words or deeds?

I think deeds are stronger. Words are not as strong as the feelings behind them. A feeling is not a deed. I’d say feelings are most interesting, because they lie behind words and deeds. Deeds are more real. They imply evidence.

Have you ever hated somebody?

No. I tend to forget things. It’s got nothing to do with forgiving. Sometimes people have treated me badly, and I usually forget about it. I might meet a person and be pleased to see them, and two hours later I’ll think, aha, that was the one who did this or that. I don’t realise things at that particular moment. I’m very slow. I’m not a calculating person and I don’t bear a grudge.

But don’t you sometimes get angry with people and feel like you want to hit them?

Do you mean real fighting?

Yes, why not? I mean when you’re really, really angry with someone?

When I was little, yes. But not now.

What are you afraid of?

I’m afraid of dying. Before I had my accident, I thought death was okay and might be a relief. I wasn’t afraid of it. But after my accident, when I could have died, I really panicked. I was really scared. I wasn’t ready to die. I’m also afraid of other people dying. Especially people in my family, who I’m close to.

Do you believe in heaven and hell? In God and the Devil?

No, I have both feet firmly on the ground there. I didn’t have a religious upbringing. My father was Jewish and my mother is Protestant. I went through a religious phase when I was young and I was fascinated by Jewish traditions. But when my father died there was nothing left for me to believe in. I couldn’t escape into theories.

Would you prefer to just die, or to be reborn as an animal?

I don’t want to be an animal. I don’t really believe in anything. I wish I did believe in something, because that would make life easier. But I don’t believe in life after death.

Lars von Trier commited Charlotte Gainsbourg also for his next movie. Alongside Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, Udo Kier and Charlotte Rampling she will be starring in the Science Fiction-Catastrophemovie »Melancholia«. The shooting will start in the south of Sweden in July.
The Single ›Heaven can wait‹ from the current album »IRM« has just been released by Warner Music.