Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel first met in 1999 while shootingThe Children of the Century. The two fell hard for each other, and within a few months they’d decided to have a child. They broke up five years later and didn’t speak much over the next two decades — until they agreed to star in another film together, 2024’sThe Taste of Things. In this conversation with Rachel Handler, they hash it all out in-depth for the first time: what drew them to each other, what drew them apart, and what it’s like to act together again. It’s an unusually intimate interview, and at a certain point it starts to read like couple’s therapy, as they hit on topics they philosophically disagree on: around acting, what it means to trust your child, and the pressures of being a nepo baby. At one point, Magimel takes a breather to smoke a cigarette, standing in the doorway as they continue to argue for 15 more minutes. “We can talk about everything, of course,” he says, “but as you can see it requires energy.”