Juliette Binoche—one of Europe’s most notable female cinematic exports, famous for roles in The English Patient, Chocolat, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, among other films—comes off as something of a strange paradox in person. She’s like the human equivalent of a fish that deliberately jumps into the fisherman’s boat. Sure, she’s out of her element—but who put her there in the first place? So on the one hand, she’s intelligent, witty, and engaging. And yet she’s apparently almost willfully naïve. How can a professional of her stature, for instance, sign on to star in Dan in Real Life and not realize she’s making a film for the Disney corporation, as she’s stated in other interviews?

So naturally, since she was drawn to this project, she’s got a lot in common with the film’s creative team—but she parts company with them in terms of philosophy.

Take children, for instance. Both screenwriter Pierce Gardner and director Peter Hedges, like Binoche, have children. Binoche’s are aged 14 and 7, Gardner has three girls who are in their late teens, while Hedges’ are still in single digits. So how does work balance out with children for these professionals?

For Hedges, he’s thrilled to be making a clean family film, saying that the effort “is “completely intentional. … I’d like to go to a [premiere of one of my movies] and take my kids.” Likewise, Hedges is committed to making work play with his own family’s values. “I won’t go away to make a movie that my kids can’t see,” he says.

Binoche, on the other hand, is totally puzzled by the idea that her children ought to be able to see the movies she makes, or that such a thing would even be desirable. “You can’t reduce the body of your work,” she says with a look of dismay, “to please your children.”

Of course, it’s not surprising to hear a serious artist express that opinion; after all, an artist’s primary audience is only very rarely exclusively children. What’s surprising is that Binoche is shocked that other people would be concerned about such a thing, when the “softening” of an artist’s work as children and grandchildren enter their lives (see Ice Cube, Jon Favreau, and Jamie Lee Curtis, et al) is a pretty common occurrence. Steve Martin, for goodness sake, is even writing children’s books now.

It’s pretty clear, though, that Binoche is a fairly driven personality, and taking your career seriously is bound to produce an effect similar to blinders. “This is what I need to do on the earth,” she emphasizes. “This is my task.” So, given that she senses a “calling” as an actor, what’s her goal with her art? “I want to show the world how much potential we have” as humans, she says. “We’re stuck in [old] ideas.”

Here’s hoping that Binoche’s unwitting entrée to Hollywood serves her goals. Dan in Real Life, pleasant and light as it is, might not change the world; but it just might open up some new opportunities for her this side of the big pond. Now she’ll just have to decide if that’s a good thing!

Courtesy of a national publicist, Greg participated in roundtable interviews with Binoche, Hedges, and Gardner at the Marina Del Rey Ritz-Carlton as part of the Dan in Real Life press junket.