Juliette Binoche: She turned down Steven Spielberg three times

Juliette Binoche, an icon of French cinema, is regularly contacted by directors across the Atlantic as well as series creators. We can currently see her playing Coco Chanel in New Look on Apple TV+. But he does not always respond positively, even to the most prestigious requests.

Great time

This is how he told AlloCiné that he turned down three offers from legendary director Steven Spielberg. In a retrospective of his career in the United States, the actor shared the reasons for this important rejection.

The first submission was about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Binoche then took over filming Les Amants du Pont-Neuf with Leo Carax. “In the middle of filming, I was trying to find money with Leo Karaks, the director. We were a small group. So it was impossible“, he recalls.

Then Spielberg offered him a role in Jurassic Park, but the actor had already accepted for Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Blue. He explains his choice:Even though I was excited about the idea of ​​shooting with Spielberg… the closeness that happened in Blue still intrigued me more.“

The third rejection concerns Schindler’s List, a project for which she was pregnant at the time: “And then there was Schindler’s List, where I was being beaten, raped, dying… and I was pregnant with my child, so I said to myself, “Mmmm… maybe not, no.”“

A strong career choice

This selection reflects Juliette Binoche’s selective approach, favoring projects that resonate with her artistic aspirations rather than Hollywood blockbusters. It seems that his refusal to play for Spielberg was not dictated by a lack of interest in big productions, but by a commitment to projects that were close to his heart at the crucial moments of his career.

Juliette Binoche emphasizes the importance of her choice:It was important for me to do Bleu… it was cinema… Kieslowski is really an author that fascinates me.“These decisions show an actor who is true to his artistic convictions, choosing roles that allow him to deeply explore human complexities where it would be easier to succumb to the immediate prestige of blockbusters.

New Look is fully available on Apple TV+