Translation of an article from "Femme" Magazine copyright 1995
Translated By Marianne Le Bris
The new discussion of love with Christopher Lambert

In France, half of all mariages end in divorce. Christopher Lambert - on our screens in Highlander 3 - separated from his wife Diane Lane, is trying to get through this sad time with dignity. We rediscover a man at peace with himself and happy to be a father.

Q:  You are leaving for Thailand to play the rold of God in your new film. What does playing God do for your ego?

CL:  It's great! Suddenly you realise you really are important!

Q:  Really?

CL:  No, it's funny. Playing God with pretension isn't interesting. God, if he exists, is a simple being.

  Do you have the soul of a gypsy?

CL:  My father was a diplomat and my parents were always travelling, so planes and travelling became family life for me. It's not easy when you are young, but today I find it has helped me a lot: wherever I am, I adapt immediately.

Q:  Have you suffered from that lifestyle?

CL:  I don't like to complain as that means dwelling on a particular time in your life, and things must move on.

Q:  How do you react when faced with a mob of paparazzi?

CL:  It amuses me! But the problem concerns me with regard to my wife. Even if we are about to be divorced, I don't want anyone to hurt her. Trying to maintain a private life, that's all part of the game when you are in this profession.

Q:  How are you living your bachelor life?

CL:  Very well, because I spent ten years with Diane. It has come full circle. I adore her, we understand each other now as we never did before. But when you live with someone five months a year for ten years, you can't always make the effort to seduce each other all the time, it's impossible. When the moment comes that something "breaks", it's better to call it quits while everything is still amicable rather than trying to save the marriage and then having an appalling divorce two years later. What we are going through is not actually a divorce. We are very friendly, there's no problem with money, the baby, anything. When I go to London I stay at her place, I don't even think about it. We are very fond of each other. You can't love someone for ten years and then say: "Now we aren't together any more, so I'm going to kill her".

Q:  When a couple is frequently separated, does it work?

CL:  It's already something to have had ten years! It means that there was something strong between us. For sure, when you get married you are supposed to live together all the time, but, I've never lived like that. I was conditioned from the start to not having a family life, contrary to Diane who, in spite of being away from her parents, has always been close to them. I adore my parents, but, I've never been used to a traditional home, so I'm not really prepared to come home and put my feet under the table.

Q:  Do you need to be free?

CL:  Yes and today I am much more in harmony with myself because I've made a healthy decision. From teh moment you come out and say what you really think, it's not hard. What is hard is lying, cheating.

Q:  You don't like cheating?

CL:  In my opinion, cheating is the worst! It's the only thing I won't compromise with, as don't forget I work in a profession based on cheating, on pretence, but where a lie is said with such conviction that it's believed more than the truth. In my eyes, that's what the profession of acting represents.

Q:  Your feminine ideal?

CL:  Charm, intelligence, a smile, a sense of humor, before model looks. I've been lucky, the three women I've loved have all had those qualities. Diane is very beautiful, but that's not what attracted me most about her. Physical appearance is fun sometimes, but if there is nothing behind it, it's no good for me. It's more important for me to hug someone in my arms than to just go to bed with a woman, at least nowadays. What I really want is to wake up in the morning next to someone I can look at, hug, in short, to be happy. But to sleep with someone for the sake of sleeping with someone doesn't interest me. Really, that has never interested me, even if you go through a period where you have to capture anything that moves, between 24-25 years of age for example. There's nothing better than love, even if it hurts, because it is total giving. Love is freedom. Fellows who are jealous, people who prevent others from (finding themselves/seeking a way out) are unable to love, because love means total trust. I haven't always felt this way. When I was 18, I was sick with jealousy. But then you grow out of it because it's a waste of time. You spend three hours swearing at someone, when you could spend the time smiling at them, kissing them, being on good terms with them.

Q:  What, in your opinion, is the most intolerable flaw in a man?

CL:  Weakness. A man's greatest quality is his "childlike" side. But it's from this that his main flaw follows. When a man slams the door, it really always stays open because he's waiting for you to say "come back". A woman who slams the door does so for good. Before getting to that stage, a woman who is in love has an extraordinary capacity of acceptance. I am fascinated by women and have always been, since I was small. What I love about a woman is her ambiguity. The way in which seduction works is fascinating. Quite often men don't realise that it's the woman who has chosen, they are sure instead that it was they who decided to approach her. I don't know how to flirt, and I've never known. And I have a terrible reputation which is completely unfounded.

Q:  What are you most proud of in your life?

CL:  My baby! (he laughs heartily) My little girl. Eleanore. She's brilliant. She waited for me to start walking. I hadn't seen her for 9 weeks, I arrived home on the Thursday, and on the Friday morning she walked! I treat my baby like a human being, we talk to each other. It's not worth acting silly. Babies are very sensible creatures.

Q:  What will you tell her, your daughter, when she's 15?

CL:  Our love, for both of us, is completely unconditional, natural. What I'm going to say is not at all dsparaging. When my daughter makes those little baby noises, I feel like I'm back in the time of Greystoke where I worked with baby 5 month old apes. I don't know whether I'm close to animals, but when I see my little girl, I know we are all animals. Apart from innocence, animals and little children have spontaneity. And that is one thing I don't want my daughter to lose. With her I'm happy, we're on teh same wave length. Me, I was conditioned to do things secretly.

Q:  What kind of child were you?

CL:  I was a chronic liar. Because I had to save my own skin, I had to save my heart (emotional self), in order not to physically or mentally die. Until I was 12 I spent my playtime in the toilets, I was so afraid. I got over it but it took me some time.

Q:  What advice would you give the next presidentof the Republic?

CL:  To have truth, simplicity, and to say "fellows, perhaps I'm not perfect, but I'm trying to do something for you and with you". Politics today is poor, because people don't manage to communicate. A friend of mine who I love because he is humane, is Jacques Chirac: he's funny, witty, explosive, he enjoys himself, he possesses a remarkable humaity. Today Chirac matures in harmony with what he is as a human being in relation to his politics: he's the kind that ages well.

Q:  How do you see yourself getting older?

CL:  You age well from the moment you are in harmony with yourself, aging is therefore not something to make you panic. Me, I don't care, I'm happy to be getting older.