The Artist's Bérénice Bejo: Peppy Miller "is my husband's fantasy" "We talk about it being silent, black and white whatever," says Bejo, "but the real reason the film succeeds is because the story Michel wrote, he wrote in images. Although I had no lines, as an actress, it didn't feel to me as though anything was missing. Did she get the sense from day one of the shoot that they were on to something special? "No, no, no," she says, her accent sliding between American and French. At the very beginning, I was too nervous, I couldn't feel anything at that point. The first big scene I shot felt kind of like my audition because being the wife of the director you are always aware that everybody will think you just got the role because you're the wife, and they are looking to see how good you really are. So when I arrived on set that day I was like, OK, this is the moment I am going to say to everybody "I am an actress."" Bejo's performance is dazzling: loose-limbed, big-hearted and anchored by an appealing lack of self-consciousness, a sense of absolute ease in her own skin that a younger, less-experienced actress would have struggled to pull off. Hazanavicius's camera follows her around like an adoring puppy, every bit as in love with her wide expressive face as the man behind the lens. "When you work with somebody you know really well, you want to please him and so maybe you put more pressure on yourself than you should," says Bejo of the particular nuances of acting for her husband. It took me a few days just to let it go, to be an actress and not be Bérénice trying to please Michel. But it helps that he is very easy on set with all the cast. I'm Argentine, so I'm more fiery, but I handle myself. Bejo moved from Buenos Aires to Paris with her parents when she was three and has been acting, almost exclusively in French film, since she was 17. She met Hazanavicius six years ago on the set of his French James Bond spoof OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and they have been together ever since. The younger of their two children, Gloria, was born two months ago (Hazanavicius also has two daughters from a previous marriage). The combined demands of a young family and a full throttle awards campaign is, she admits, beginning to make her feel her age at last. "I am not going to be able to play the young cute actress for much longer," she says, "but that's OK. I filmed a movie last week where I play the older woman alongside a 20-year-old actress. For the first time I felt, "Ooh, I'm not so young any more" - and I liked it. In fact, I can't wait to be very old and for Michel to write for me the part of a grumpy grandmother," she smiles. That's my fantasy, and he knows it. The Artist (PG) is in cinemas now