LOS ANGELES: Following reports that Julie Delpy said no to a fourth film in the popular "Before" series with director Richard Linklater and co-star Ethan Hawke, the actor-filmmaker said her remarks were misinterpreted because the follow-up was never in development.
Earlier in the week, in an interview with a French news outlet, Delpy had also talked about mulling over retirement from the film industry.
In order to set the record straight, the actor told Variety that the trio - Linklater, Hawke and she - couldn't come up with a good enough idea to take the series forward.
"What happened was that we -- all three of us -- agreed that we couldn't come up with something good for a fourth one. It's that simple. We didn't fight. We're not on bad terms. Everyone's happy. It's so much drama for nothing. We just didn't come up with a good idea," she said.
Delpy played Celine to Hawke's Jesse in the 1995 movie "Before Sunrise" about two strangers who meet on a train and strike up a conversation.
A sequel "Before Sunset" was released in 2004 and a third film "Before Midnight" was released in 2013.
Delpy and Hawke served as producers and co-writers along with Linklater on the two films.
The 51-year-old French-American actor said they had promised each other that they wouldn't feel "forced" to make a fourth movie.
"If we didn't find something. why push it and make a bad fourth one instead of keeping it a good trilogy?" Delpy mused.
She said there was a short exchange between the trio about one idea. "But it was basically an idea that none of us liked. That was the end of it. It was half of a bad idea that went around and we were like, 'Let's not do it'", Delpy added.
Delpy is looking forward to the premiere of "On the Verge", a Netflix series she created, co-directed and stars in about women in their mid-40s to mid-50s.