LAST YEAR EVERYONE WAS SAYING HOW BRIDESMAIDS PROVED THAT WOMEN CAN DO CRUDE COMEDY, JUST LIKE MEN. BUT YOU DID IT A FEW YEARS EARLIER WITH 2 DAYS IN PARIS. DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AS PIONEERING THAT TREND? It's weird that in a way 2 Days in Paris was a bit ahead of its time, but it was indie, so it didn't have the same effect. With Bridesmaids — I mean, I liked the film, but I wasn't that surprised. A lot of studios wanted to make a movie like it, and they contacted me for that kind of film. They were trying to create a film like The Hangover, but for women.
THIS WAS BEFORE BRIDESMAIDS? Way before Bridesmaids. Like, four years. Right after 2 Days in Paris. So they contacted me and I felt like — it's a little forced, trying to make women very raunchy and vomiting and shitting. But Bridesmaids worked.
WILL THERE BE A THIRD IN THE BEFORE SUNRISE/BEFORE SUNSET SERIES THAT YOU CO-WROTE WITH RICHARD LINKLATER? There might be. [Note: it's since been confirmed.]
LINKLATER IS JUST ONE OF MANY GREAT FILMMAKERS YOU HAVE WORKED WITH. LIKE KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI, LEOS CARAX, AND JEAN-LUC GODARD. HAVE YOU LEARNED SOMETHING FROM THEM? I've learned from all of them. Kieslowski was very supportive when I decided to go to film school in New York. I spent about a year meeting him regularly, talking about writing screenplays and moviemaking and all that and how to make your films your own and no one else's. Which is funny, because everyone's comparing my films to Woody Allen's. But I really didn't intend that. True, I am, unfortunately, also neurotic, and I think it comes out in the films that way. I love Woody Allen; it's not a bad compliment, but I know it's going to backlash on me eventually.
AND OF COURSE KIESLOWSKI IS THE WOODY ALLEN OF POLISH FILMMAKERS. With a very different sense of humor. Obviously, my film is different from his, but I can guarantee you he [Kieslowski] would like it. I knew him so well, I can guarantee you he would crack up. He was not a prude at all, and he was a very funny man.
