Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Craig, Gemma Arterton at a press conference for Quantum of Solace Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

While the cultural milieu and the lead actors may change every decade or so, there are a few constants in each Bond movie that we can always rely on: the elaborate stunts and sets, the ambiance of sexuality and the fabulous range of international locales. Next up, Amalric and the Bond 22 crew will be moving on to the Atacama desert of northern Chile before relocating to Austria, Italy and, finally, England.

When production ultimately wraps at Pinewood Studios in London after filming the final showdown between Bond and Greene, Amaric will be able to return to the project he had put on ice in order to appear in Quantum: "I'm not an actor", he reminds self-deprecatingly. "My life is to direct films. Now I'm going to direct another film. I just had to postpone it because of the James Bond [movie]." He describes his project as a mixture of American and French sensibilities because it is "the story of American girls from the new burlesque shows that tour in France" and explores "how America fantasizes about France or Paris... and how France fantasizes about America". He plans on casting amateurs: "I think they won't be actors. I think they will be real women that do [burlesque] in America, from everywhere, Pittsburgh, Chicago, L.A. and New York. And the guy who runs the show and makes them come to France, I think will be a crazy choreographer [who is only] very famous in the contemporary dance business. No actors!"

But will he return to acting, and more specifically to acting in English as he did in Bond 22, Munich and Marie Antoinette? To this question, he is quick to single out Sofia Coppola's 2006 interpretation of France's iconic queen: "I didn't act in Marie Antoinette," he says excitedly. "I just spent twenty seconds. You know why I went there? Nobody wanted to do it because every French actor would say: 'Oh, that's too small.' I didn't care! I just wanted to be with all those girls, with those great costumes, with all those tits, you know. All those breasts! It was so erotic. And I wanted to see Sofia Coppola work. And Francis Ford Coppola was there in a chair. And I said hello. It was just 2 days but it was great."

While Amalric says that he has no plans at this time to act again in an English-language film, what he is sure about is the rest of his future: "I don't want to become a big cow. I don't want to live in L.A. I don't want to be a star. I just want to continue to have this incredible, amazing luck, to have my family and lots of friends, and [work with] young directors who I really care for and who are part of my life. And at the same time, to [enjoy] this sort of joke of being in these huge productions. It's amazing... the money that I earn on the James Bond [movie], I will put in my own film. I'm an Orson Welles, or a John Cassavetes... You earn a lot of money as an actor. I don't want to have a yacht or things like that. So I think money is a tool for a director and if you have a sort of independency as a producer, you can maybe do the films you want. But at the same time, playing in a James Bond, my first reaction was [like] childhood, was pleasure."

Read the first part of Premiere's interview with Mathieu Amalric.