"'Look at me: I'm a housewife slash little girl slash submissive slut.'"

A storm of a girl, to borrow the Courtney Love phrase, she seldom pauses for breath as she spits out the words: “When people are naturally sexy or sexy in a beautiful way like Marilyn Monroe or Angelina Jolie that’s fine. I love those women. But I hate the idea of women being objectified and playing along.

“I hate those magazine covers where the woman is just trying too hard. It looks so vulgar and trashy. I don't know why – and it's not because I'm jealous – but it makes me so mad. And here comes the girlie voice: 'Look at me: I'ma housewife slash little girl slash submissive slut.' It makes me crazy. I just want to grab them by the hair and hit their heads off the wall. I want to punch them.” She laughs – an infectious, conspiratorial laugh that would reduce even the dumbest such sexy hyphenate en giggling hysterics.

Plus ça change. This is the same Julie Delpy, who, during a 1990 screen test for The Double Life of Veronique was asked by Krzysztof Kieslowski to do something sexy on camera. So she pulled her ears and stuck out her tongue.

Read More | "'I hate the idea of sexiness'" | ?The Irish Times