Isabelle Huppert Says She Read the Script of ‘The Piano Teacher’ While Flying to the Vienna Shoot

Isabelle Huppert , the Oscar-nominated star of "Elle," spoke candidly about her career choices and made the audience laugh with her self-depreciating humor at a masterclass held at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon.

The French actor, who is also being honored with the fest's lifetime achievement Lumière prize, revealed that she had seen very few movies when she started acting some 50 years ago. But that didn't prevent her from working with some of Europe's most talented filmmakers, including Claude Chabrol, Michael Haneke and Paul Verhoeven.

"We didn't go to cinemas as much back then," she said during the on-stage conversation with Lumiere Film Festival's boss Thierry Fremaux , who is also Cannes chief. Claire Denis ("White Material") and Francois Ozon ("8 Women," "Mon Crime"), who have directed Huppert in several films, were sitting on the front row.

"When I started making films, I had seen very few. I've still seen few by the way. But sometimes, I would sense films even without seeing them. I don't know if I know how to read scripts, but maybe I can recognize filmmakers and that matters obviously in the choices we make," said Huppert, who presided over this year's Venice Film Festival. "The choices are difficult, mysterious, it's a mix of many things. It's pure intuition, ultimately."

Huppert reminisced about her experience working with Haneke, the Austrian filmmaker who directed her in several movies, starting with the highly subversive film "The Piano Teacher" in 2001. The movie went on to win two prizes at Cannes including best actress but Huppert said it almost didn't happen.

"At the beginning, we kept missing each other," she said. "He had first proposed to me 'Funny Games' and I had decided to not do it. The film is extraordinary as we know but I had found that it didn't leave any room for the imaginary of the actress that I was."

"To me, ('Funny Games') was like a completely scientific and clinical demonstration of how violence operates on the spectator and how the spectator is the plaything of this staging," she said. After "Funny Games," Haneke proposed her two other films that she wasn't able to do. By the time he suggested "The Piano Teacher," Huppert was so determined to work with Haneke that she said yes without reading the script entirely.

"He told me, if you don't want to do it, it's over, I won't propose you another film. For that reason, I said "Yes, of course, I'll do it! And then, I really read the script while I was in the plane, and there I told myself, 'OK.' And the next minute we were landing at the Vienna airport."

Huppert went on to award Haneke with the Palme d'Or in Cannes for "The White Ribbon" when she presided over the jury in 2009.

Huppert is one of the high profile talent, alongside Benicio Del Toro and Xavier Dolan , who are attending this year's Lumiere Festival.

Hupper has received accolades at Cannes and Cesar Awards and at the Golden Globes with her fearless performance in Paul Verhoeven's "Elle."

Huppert has also had a busy career in theater. She's even done plays in English in notable productions such as "Mary Stuart" and "The Maids."

With the Prix Lumière, Huppert joins an illustrious list of past recipients, including Martin Scorsese, Jane Fonda, Jane Campion, Pedro Almodóvar, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino and Wong Kar-wai.