How did you feel when you were confronted with this character for the first time?
Michael Haneke said, "I don't know if you will accept it, it's much worse than 'Funny Games'", which he had previously offered to me and I refused because I found it was too horrible. Maybe it was a good way to tell me because I was disappointed when I read it - I was expecting something a lot worse.
How did you approach what is nonetheless a difficult role?
I told myself I would deal with her dark side the moment I had to do it. I was sure that dealing with what I call the good side of her character would lead me there. For me, her good side was this terrible attachment to her mother. On the one hand she's a woman, but once she gets home she becomes this little girl. It's an extreme version of how women are, in a way, dramatically linked to their mother.
Elfriede Jelinek has said that your character takes on the masculine role, that she becomes the phallic female, a voyeur. Is that how you felt about it?
It was not that theoretical when I did it, but yes, I felt exactly that. I think that's why it was possible for me to do it, because I could feel the point of view was completely different from what it is usually. The film asks: what is it to be dominated? What is it to dominate? And who is dominating whom?
You're effectively reversing the role which all actors and celebrities take on: that of the object of the public's gaze.
Yes, and doing "The Piano Teacher" is a good answer to how that feels. Sometimes I'm viewed and it's not comfortable, but this time I can look.
"The Piano Teacher" is released in UK cinemas on Friday 9th November 2001.
