Delpy braves starring with her ex- boyfriend in new film
Katherine Haddon

LONDON—Not content with starring in, directing, writing, producing, editing and scoring her new film “2 Days In Paris,” Julie Delpy also took on the challenge of acting opposite her former boyfriend.
The 37-year-old actress, who was born in France but moved to the United States when she was 21, said the decision to cast Adam Goldberg had paid off, despite his sometimes being a “pain in the butt” on set.
In the romantic comedy, which has just been released in Britain though is already out in the United States and France, Delpy stars as a French photographer who takes her neurotic American boyfriend, played by Goldberg, to meet her parents in Paris.
But the visit goes wrong amid meetings with former partners, relationship angst and a series of culture clashes.
“It was a bit weird at times, like I had to boss him (Goldberg) around all day and that’s something men don’t like,” she said in a telephone interview from Scotland.
“But I was able to handle him fine. “There were a few days when he was being a pain in the butt but at least I knew him and I knew he would be a pain in the butt.”
Some critics have compared Goldberg’s performance to American actor and director Woody Allen, and Delpy agrees that he brought something special to the film, regardless of their past.
Asked what their relationship has been like since the film was made, she said: “He’s still Adam and that’s why I hired him because he’s always brooding and complaining and that’s great for the film.”
The idea for the film hit Delpy after a “really horrible” weekend in Paris with a friend in 2001. A self-confessed “break-up phobic”, she imagined what the experience would be like if it had happened with a boyfriend.
Delpy is best known for her role alongside Ethan Hawke in 1995’s “Before Sunrise” and 2004’s follow-up “Before Sunset,” which saw her Oscar-nominated for co-writing.
Like “2 Days In Paris”, “Before Sunset” was set in Paris, and Delpy admits that she has a complex relationship with the capital of her homeland.
“Paris can be a wonderful city and it can be a nightmare, it can be very safe and very dangerous,” she said.
“Sometimes I have a wonderful time there and sometimes it’s worse.” While bemoaning what she says is the tendency of her countrymen to complain too much and describing the French as “a weird tribe of people”, she says she feel close to Europe, despite spending so long in Los Angeles.
“I feel very European,” she said. “There’s a real European personality that’s different to American. There’s a real European culture.”
Delpy — who cast her own parents, actors Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, as her character’s mother and father in her new film — said that Europeans tend to place a higher value on relationships and family. But she praises the “great sense of work” in the United States and says she learnt the “discipline” of regular writing there.
Her work ethic shows in her ability to juggle roles in “2 Days In Paris”, although she is modest about being able to keep so many balls in the air at once.