Isabelle Huppert doesn't view acting as "work"

The veteran star - who has won numerous awards during her career - told the Observer newspaper: "I'm not sure I feel like I work, that's the essential point.

"Of course, it is work. But work is something very different for many people.

"Sometimes, unfortunately, work can be surviving, it can be difficult. You can spend your life doing something that you don't really like doing and I guess in this case some part of your brain can focus on something else.

"But in my case, I have this immense privilege to do something that I love. So that's why I can't really call it work. It's something different."

Isabelle has never been a shrinking violet and has instead always preferred to take the "main place" in her career.

She said: "From the beginning, that was a conscious choice, but at the same time I had no choice, because I was never really asked to be the woman sitting behind the man, the woman giving value to the man. You have to be a certain type of woman [to be that]. That was never my case, so in a way, the only place I could take was the main place. Which was fine."

Asked if she sees her approach as an act of feminism, Isabelle replied: "Yes, but in a very selfish way, not as a very political statement.

"At the end of the day, of course it's feminist to give the main position to the female character in the film. But I think that the feminist statement would have to fight for some bigger purposes. Like equality of salaries between men and women, equality of access to work, women being better treated in many circumstances."