Ms. Pfeiffer, in “French Exit” you play a rather eccentric, bizarre woman.

Does the film's weird humor match your own?

I wish I were as funny and witty as my character Frances!

Unlike them, I am unfortunately - like most of them - far too busy being polite and showing consideration for other people's feelings.

That's probably why the role appealed to me so much: I was able to act out everything that I am not, that is, an emotional and psychological wrecking ball that uses its humor as a coping mechanism.

Does it make things easier or harder when you have to play someone who is very different from you?

It can go either way.

Sometimes I find it particularly difficult to embody someone who is very similar to me.

But the opposite can also happen.

When a character is far from myself, it can be difficult to anchor emotionally.

I once played a murderer in the film "White Oleander".

That was perhaps the most difficult role of my career, simply because, with the best will in the world, I couldn't find anything in this woman that I liked or could relate to myself in any way.

Every day in front of the camera was damn hard work that wasn't fun.

You once said that it takes you a long time to get involved in a role and then you are downright addicted to your character.

Do you have withdrawal symptoms at the end of a movie?

Did I really talk about addiction?

Devotion is perhaps the better word.

When I have decided on a project, I am committed to it with all my heart.

From the moment of acceptance to the end of production.

Long before I even stand in front of the camera, I think about the role.

This is probably one of the reasons why I make comparatively few films: It's often too exhausting.

That is exactly why there can be no talk of withdrawal symptoms in the end.

I'm so exhausted that I'm happy when I can leave the role behind me.

For a long time you were considered very picky about your work, but in the end you turned back a lot.

Have you found the joy of your job again, or are there simply better roles in the meantime?

Probably both.

In fact, for a long time I rarely read scripts that I found convincing.

But that was also the time when my children were small, so I was probably not that open to new projects in my mind.

Every time I had to carefully weigh up where and how long the film was to be shot and whether it was worth it to me.

The older the two got and the more foreseeable the end of their school days was, the more work came back into focus.

And promptly there were more offers that interested me.

In fact, shooting is more fun for me than it has been in a long time.

If only it weren't for Corona.

Do you stress working under pandemic conditions?

I'm doing the new Ant-Man movie in London, it's my second job since the pandemic started.

Wearing a mask and taking the tests are tedious, but not bad, and I don't feel unsafe here in England either, after all, a lot of people are vaccinated.

You sure too, right?