Julie Delpy reveals she rejected doing a fourth ‘Before’ film
So much for a ‘B4 Sunrise’.
It’s been 26 years since the fictional pairing of Céline and Jesse serendipitously met on a train ride going to Vienna, plucking at our heartstrings for that perfect brief summer romance ever since.
With the Before trilogy seemingly coming to a satisfying conclusion, actress Julie Delpy revealed that she was was approached by director Richard Linklater last year to potentially revisit the star-crossed love story, but refused amid thoughts of retiring.
“A year and a half ago, I was not far from [retiring],” she shared in an interview with French magazine Telerama. “The hell I went through to produce my film had exhausted me. I said no to Richard Linklater for the fourth part of the Before films.”
She furthered that she even thought about leaving the film industry to return to school and pursue medicine.
“I would make a very good doctor, for example. I thought that maybe I could go back to school. You give me three symptoms, and I tell you what you are suffering from.”
Despite her doubts, Delpy remained true to her passion as she’s now set to promote her directorial film A Dazzling Display of Splendor starring Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke.
“I like to create, to tell stories. It’s stronger than me.”
With the three Before films happening within 9 years from each other (1995, 2004, then 2013), a fourth film would have to be released in 2022 to fit into the timeline.
Julie's co-star, Ethan Hawke, shared with review site IndieWire last year that a fourth film could ruin the existing timeline, so any further projects would have to happen after 2022.
"Linklater would want a different path, either a short film set four years after ‘Midnight’ or a feature two decades in the future," the actor shared.
Hawke himself has taken a jab at predicting Celine and Jesse's future, saying that "that doesn’t mean there won’t be another work, like an epilogue. I would be curious about an After series, about something where you really deal with the second half of your life.”
We may not know just yet what happens to the iconic couple after 2013’s Before Midnight, but it’s a nice thought that they still exist in their creators’ minds, having endless discussions about life and love along the way.