At the recent press day for the chatty, loose-limbed relationship dramedy 2 Days in Paris, the subject of multi-hyphenate Julie Delpy’s
two “Before collaborations” with
Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke came up, and not merely because of her most recent
film’s thematic overlap — namely a mixed-culture couple who may or may not be
right for one another working through some issues in voluble fashion — with
those projects. No, it was because Before
Sunset was so well received, in fact, that it kicked up some talk of
another possible installment.

For her part, Delpy isn’t discounting the possibility, but
says that it’s far from a certainty, even in the theoretical realm. “You know,
it depends on if we ever stumble onto the right idea. It took us nine years to
really come up with the right concept for the second film, and we wouldn’t like
to do a crappy third one that will suck, you know? And we could make a crappy third one, you know? It could happen,” she
says. “But we’d really like to stumble onto the right thing for it. Every time
anything is well received is a surprise for me, especially when I’m involved as
a writer, because I’m so happy — that means I say something that has a little
sense. I’m amazed because, for example, when I was writing Before Sunset, my agent fired me because he thought I was wasting
my time writing a stupid sequel to a movie that would never be made, and even
if it was made it would do nothing for my career. So you have to have a lot of
faith and belief in yourself to keep on writing when you’re ditched by your
agent, who tells you you’re crazy to write a stupid sequel. But in the end he
called and was like, ‘Why did you leave us?’ I was like, ‘How could you turn it
around?!’ The guy is so in denial over what he did that he’s actually thinking
that I left them.”

A delusional agent? Shocking, I say. Shocking…