actress Judith Godrèche looks back on her relationship at 14 with director Benoît Jacquot

In an interview with “Elle”, the director of the new Arte series “Icon of French Cinema” says that she was “vulnerable despite a certain maturity” at the start of her acting career.

“I navigated alone in a world without rules or laws.” French actress Judith Godrèche returns for the first time, in an interview published by She Thursday December 7, on her relationship with director Benoît Jacquot, who was 40 years old at the time while she was only 14. “I had no idea what the law said, I left school at 15, the stories we read, the films we saw, everything promoted this image of Lolita, of baby doll”she says, now 51 years old.

Back on screens with his series Icon of French Cinemaat the end of the month, on Arte, Judith Godrèche plays an actress who began a romantic relationship at the age of 14 with a director twenty-five years her senior. “It’s because I have a teenage daughter that I can realize what happened to meshe says. I was a very lonely, very idealistic young girl (…) vulnerable despite a certain maturity.”

“Daring to take my place is suffering”

Years later, she believes that her “sense of legitimacy” in the world of cinema “will remain fragile”. “There is something anchored in me, as if branded with a hot iron: ‘You will remain in your place as child, muse and muse’. Daring to take my place is suffering and a battle for me. ” However, she doesn’t hear “adjust [ses] accounts” through his series and put his work in the background.

She especially calls on young girls to “be careful” : “You can get caught in the net of a more powerful person and art is an extremely favorable springboard for that. As an actress, you need to be loved, looked at.”