Isabelle Huppert Says AI Has Not Replaced Her: 'This Is Really Me, the Actress'

The French star at the Busan International Film Festival said Isabelle Huppert has not yet been replaced by AI, although she has heard she will soon be speaking Korean and Japanese. At a press conference for Mark Fitoussi, Huppert said: 'I didn't know I spoke Korean. I only know how to say "annyeonghaseyo" [hello].'

The French star said at the Busan International Film Festival that Isabelle Hooper has yet to be overtaken by artificial intelligence, although she has heard she will be speaking Korean and Japanese soon.

"I didn't know I spoke Korean. I just know how to say 'annyeonghaseyo' [hello]," Huppert said at a press conference for Marc Fitosi's comedy "All About Corinne," which will be screened in the festival's gala presentation. Related stories Quentin Tarantino's Poppinji Cavalier, starring Sacha Baron Cohen, will be released in the West End in Rent in March. Reborn: How to Get a Star Matarazzo, director Luke Sheppard and a superb West End ensemble present the musical's greatest revival yet.

Asked if artificial intelligence would destroy acting careers, Huppert said: "It's really me acting. So I haven't been threatened yet, and I've faced that obvious prospect," he added. Popular in Variety

Huppert allowed that AI is a threat in theory, but compared it to the fear of movie theaters disappearing or records disappearing, only for vinyl to return. "Maybe I'm wrong to be optimistic, I don't know," he said.

Huppert also confirmed that he will appear in a Dario Argento film. He said: "I am very happy about it. I think next year will be a long time."

Fitosi, whose "All About Corinne" marks her fourth collaboration with Huppert, said she is in the early stages of a new project and would like to work with him again.

"It's a little early to talk about it, but in any case I saw a movie with Joan Crawford that really excites me, and the idea of a remake with Isabelle is very tempting," Fitossi said.

"I hope so," Huppert replied.

All About Corinne, which premiered at Locarno, stars Huppert as Corinne Macklow, a veteran actress who has never given up on her acting dreams and pursues her friendship with another actress. Sandrine Kiberlin and other famous musicians appear as themselves. The film will be released in South Korea next spring.

When asked how he approached playing an extra, Huppert said that the strength of Fitussi's script and dialogue did a lot, and that while being an extra isn't like any other job, it's still a job. He said: "I play an extra job, but I can play well in any other profession. So for me it does not cause any particular problem."

Huppert pushed back against the idea that the film only looked warmly at the acting profession, noting that it was particularly cruel in many situations. He said that the movie industry in the story is an example of a deeply hierarchical society. "Obviously, that's true of any similar organization where there are those who have power and those who don't. It's not necessarily about demonizing the movie world either," he said.

The project started almost as a joke, Fitossi said, with the idea of casting one of France's busiest actors as someone who could never act. He called Huppert before writing a word. "It's because he said yes that I started writing," he said. He also contacted Kiberlin and the other actors who were playing themselves before starting the script.

The director first explored the world of extras in the 2008 documentary Des Figurants, borrowing from one of its subjects, a woman wearing a pink scarf in hopes of catching a director's eye. In the new movie, Corinne's weird hair serves the same purpose. "Either way, these are characters that I inevitably find very poignant, because they're a little bit like losers, a little bit invisible. And it would be nice to make them heroes over the course of a movie," Fitosi said.

He also revealed that he had started writing a film in which Huppert would play a truck driver, but stopped after learning that Juliette Binoche had filmed an American film in a similar role. He said he would probably return to that script one day.

Huppert arrived in Busan on the morning of the press conference after reading a novel by Nobel laureate Han Kang in Seoul with Lee Hye-young, her "Traveler's Needs" co-star Hong Sang-soo. The couple staged it for the first time at the Avignon festival, where Korea was this year's guest. This was his second appearance in Seoul, after Robert Wilson's "What Mary Said."

This is Huppert's third trip to Busan and Fitosi's first trip to Korea. Huppert, who has appeared in three of Hong's films, was named the first female president of France's Cinematheque this year.