I wake up at 4:30. I’m writing in the morning. I don’t like the night. I love my bed.

When did you first realize you wanted to make films?

My parents worked [as SCUBA teachers] at Club Med, so I was watching shows every night. I started to write at 13, to take pictures at 14. It just came to me, like some people love baseball — me, it was photography and writing. I built my skills without noticing. Later, I said: “Hmm, movies, that’s probably a good way of expressing for me because I’m not good at anything [else].”

Did you ever want to be anything other than a filmmaker?

When I was 16, I wanted to study dolphins, because I was in love with dolphins. And I got in a diving accident and the doctor told me, “You will never dive again.” This guy broke me in two. He didn’t even realize what he had done because that was my life, diving, dolphins. And the day he said “forget about it” [was as if] basically you want to be a dancer and then you have no feet. I was very desperate. It was my worst moment. You’re 16, you’re in boarding school, and you’re broken by this doctor. I was really, really down. I remember asking myself, “What are you going to do with your life?” I took a piece of paper and I put a line down the middle, and on the left I said what I loved and on the right what I hated.

Do you watch films a lot now?

No. Cooking and eating are not the same job. My job is cooking.

What do you do outside filmmaking?

The biggest thing is writing, in the morning. I love that. If I don’t write for a few days, I feel bad. I’m nervous and I’m not agreeable with people. It’s my gym.

Do you read a lot as well as write?

No, I don’t. Except scripts. I can’t concentrate on a book. You start the book and the guy is talking about a garden — and after two pages, I’m in the garden of my grandmother, and I think about my grandmother and that’s it, I’m out. For me, a book is a house without walls. I get in, and I can’t get out. And that’s what I love about film: You have to follow the thing; you can’t go backward or forward.

I take it you’re not the kind of person who goes home at the end of the night and puts on a movie?
No. I’m going to bed at nine.

At nine? That’s crazy.
I wake up at 4:30. I’m writing in the morning. I don’t like the night. I love my bed.

What do you do to unwind at the end of the day?
Un-what?

Sorry, it’s an American idiom. Like, what do you do to relax at the end of the day?
At the end of the day I’d love to come back home and listen to the kids. I’m fascinated by the stories they have about the relationships they have with others. There’s always drama over nothing, and I like to hear the story.

Sources:

• https://www.vulture.com/2017/07/luc-besson-valerian-interview.html
• https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/luc-besson-risks-valerian-time-james-cameron-took-me-a-moron-1019897/