Julie Delpy Turned Down a Before 4 Movie Offer From Richard Linklater

Before Midnight star, Julie Delpy, reveals that she turned down an opportunity to film a fourth installment of Richard Linklater’s trilogy. The first film, featuring Delpy and Ethan Hawke, debuted in 1995 to critical acclaim. Reviewers praised the movie for its thoughtful, nuanced take on relationships, love, and loss, as well as its commitment to delving into a character-driven exploration of two people learning to get to know each other. Upon its critical and commercial success, subsequent sequel films were released approximately ten years apart. The Before trilogy remains a highly esteemed work that has garnered multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards.

Before Sunrise follows two young strangers, Céline and Jesse, who meet on a train in Europe and impulsively decide to spend a night together wandering the streets of Vienna. After their romantic outing, the pair promise to reunite a year later at the exact same station. The sequel, Before Sunset, returns to the characters in Paris and explores what has to happened to Céline and Jesse in the ten years that they have been apart. While these films were not originally conceived as a trilogy, a third installment, titled Before Midnight, was released in 2013 to finish off the story of the beloved couple. Despite its seeming finality, Delpy, Hawke, and Linklater have shared interest in possibly extending the franchise.

During an interview with French magazine Telerama, Delpy explained her reluctance to shoot another Before film because of her struggles getting her own films made. She shared that she almost quit acting because of her frustrations with the entertainment industry. Read what she said below:

I often think about it…A year and a half ago, I was not far from it. The hell I went through to produce my film had exhausted me. I said no to Richard Linklater for the fourth part of the ‘Before’ films. I thought that maybe I could go back to school. I would make a very good doctor, for example! You give me three symptoms and I tell you what you are suffering from…But I like to create, to tell stories, it’s stronger than me.

A veteran of Hollywood and the French film industry, Delpy has made a name for herself as a celebrated actress, screenwriter, and director. After filming Before Sunrise, Delpy revealed that both she and Hawke provided uncredited rewrites of portions of the script to deepen the romance. In Before Sunset and Before Midnight, Delpy and Hawke joined Richard Linklater as official co-writers of the films. Both sequels received Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, establishing the trilogy as a low-budget franchise that deserved attention. While a fourth installment is not in development, all three artists have talked about possibly producing another chapter in the future.

While Delpy’s dissatisfaction with the entertainment world is certainly understandable, it is fortunate that she has not completely cut ties with film. Her work, both onscreen and off-screen, endures due to her canny and precise artistic eye. Her writing and acting in Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight elevated the overall story into a powerful and lasting romance. Although Delpy is currently uninterested in cultivating a new story for the Before trilogy, hopefully she decides to take the creative plunge later, even if it takes another ten years. Like Céline and Jesse, viewers can wait.

Source: Telerama

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