Julie Delpy did not turn down an offer to reunite with Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke for a fourth “Before” movie.
Following reports that Delpy said during an interview with a French news outlet that she walked away from the project, she told me Friday morning that her comments were misinterpreted because a fourth film was never in the works.
“What happened was that we — all three of use — agreed that we couldn’t come up with something good for a fourth one,” she said from her home in Paris. “It’s that simple. We didn’t fight. We’re not on bad terms. Everyone’s happy…It’s so much drama for nothing. We just didn’t come up with a good idea.”
“Before Sunrise” was released in 1995, followed by 2004’s “Before Sunset.” The third film, “Before Midnight” came out in 2013.
“We always promised ourselves that we wouldn’t force it,” Delpy said. “If we didn’t find something…why push it and make a bad fourth one instead of keeping it a good trilogy?”
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She said there was a short exchange between the trio about one idea, “but it was basically an idea that none of us liked. That was the end of it. It was half of a bad idea that went around and we were like, ‘Let’s not do it.’”
Delpy cracked, “I’m not the Yoko [Ono] of the band.”
During the pandemic, Delpy was busy in Los Angeles for several months shooting “On the Verge,” a Netflix series she created, co-directed and stars in about women in their mid-40s to mid-50s. “I thought it was interesting to tell stories of these women who are vibrant, interesting and exciting,” she said. “ When I say ‘On the Verge,’ maybe it’s a bit of an homage to ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,’ but they’re more on the verge of something new, something different. I wanted to show women that it’s not over. Everything can start again and change again, so that’s what it’s all about.”
