Wealth & Money Quote by Catherine Deneuve

Deneuve’s admiration lands less like starry-eyed praise and more like a cool admission of how much invisible labor sits behind the camera. Coming from an actress whose public persona is often associated with poise, control, and exacting taste, “I find them incredible” reads as both compliment and boundary marker: directing is not simply “being artistic,” it’s a job that requires governance.

Her phrasing quietly demystifies cinema. She doesn’t invoke inspiration, genius, or vision first; she goes straight to logistics: “a huge number of people,” “different characters,” “the money involved.” That list is the subtext. Film is an art form built out of personalities, hierarchies, and budgets, and the director is the person tasked with converting chaos into something that looks inevitable on screen. By foregrounding “different characters,” she’s also acknowledging the actor’s daily reality: sets are miniature societies where ego, fear, ambition, and exhaustion all show up to work.

There’s an implicit generosity in this perspective, too. Actors are often framed as the face of a production, yet Deneuve points attention toward the unglamorous management that makes performance possible. It’s also a subtle comment on power: directors don’t just coordinate; they carry responsibility for other people’s time, livelihoods, and risk. In an industry where auteur mythology can flatten collaboration into one name, Deneuve’s respect feels grounded in a professional’s understanding of what control actually costs.