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French film star Juliette Binoche has worked all over the world in roles that have brought her Bafta and Oscar wins (for The English Patient) and best actress awards in Cannes, Berlin and Venice.

Now the 62-year-old takes the starring role in Lance Hammer’s film Queen at Sea, in which she plays a lecturer supporting her mother who has dementia and a daughter experiencing first love.

Queen at Sea finds your character Amanda reach maximum stress point. Could you relate to that?

I shared with Lance the moment in my life when I found myself caught between my children – who were then teenagers exploring love, feelings and sexuality – and my father, who was very fragile and had a type of Alzheimer’s and cancer. I remember waking in the middle of the night and not knowing what to do, and it put me in a survivor mode, and so I talked to Lance about that. He liked that idea very much and included it in the film.

Dementia feels so commonplace now. Does it scare you?

Funnily enough, because I’m an actress, and I live a lot in different places, in different periods of time, the idea of dementia doesn’t scare me as much – I’m always somewhere else in my being. But of course, I can go back and forth at will, so it’s another story.

Is it true that on set you cooked for your co-stars Sir Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall?

Yes – I love sharing it. Catering on films sometimes is a little boring and we would stay in the house where we filmed. I wanted to stay with them because I loved their company and it was fun for me to bring new stuff to eat.

What did you cook them?

Whatever I could find. They know my love for chocolate – although that’s diminished because I discovered that there’s cadmium in chocolate, which I read can cause health issues – so now I don’t feel like eating as much as before. But the chocolate coming from Africa has less cadmium than the chocolate coming from South America.

You’ve been acting since the 1980s. Was it a struggle at the beginning?

I had a little bit of help the first year, as a student, from my mother. She gave me some money to pay for my theatre class. And my first boyfriend was very generous as well. I didn’t have to find a place to live, because I was living with him. After that, it was a struggle. At one point, I was a cashier in a department store and I had to choose between continuing there or playing in a Jean-Luc Godard film [Hail Mary]. I had to try to convince the head of the store to let me go to be in the film but she wouldn’t. She said, “You’ve started, and in a few years, you can go up in the shop and be a very important person.” I tried to say, “This is my passion. Working with Jean-Luc Godard, it’s quite something as an actor.” But she said, “Good luck! I’m just warning you, it’s a difficult job and you never know what you’re going to get.”

Do you still have the same drive to act today?

Acting for me, it’s like exploring, and the joy of exploring is why I’m doing it, because it brings knowledge. It brings transformation in me. I go into the dark, painful places in order to transform it into light, into something that is bigger than me, something that is human. It changes me, so it doesn’t bother me because it’s what I love doing.

Is there ever a time when you don’t feel like going to those dark places?

It needs a little courage sometimes in the morning when you wake up and say, “Oh no, no, no, not today!” But at the same time, you sign the contract, not only with the producer but with yourself, and so that’s really what it is. It’s the joy of exploration. You have to pass some moments of difficulty in any kind of journey.

Have you found filming nude scenes difficult?

Nudity in films is always a problem. I never feel very comfortable with that. Even though I did a lot of nude scenes, in the 80s and 90s. Somehow it feels fake… because it is fake, I suppose.

What’s it like being the president of the European Film Academy?

It’s interesting. I’m happy I said yes to that task – it’s also helped wake up the French industry to be part of it because they’re very absent. That’s probably why they chose me!

Famously, you won an Oscar for The English Patient. Was that a life-changing moment?

In my personal life, it brought joy and astonishment because I didn’t expect it. But at the same time in my work, I wouldn’t say it changed anything. Because you’re still in front of the camera and you still have to be in the present time and take risks for it not to be repetitive. My children changed me. Relationships change you and your parents dying changes you and you use all that matter of life in your work. That’s what makes a difference.

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Queen at Sea will be in cinemas in the UK from 18 September

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