Honestly, if you watch Before Sunrise today, you probably see a daydream. You see two impossibly young, attractive people wandering through Vienna, talking about everything and nothing. It feels light. It feels like a fluke of chemistry. But the reality of Julie Delpy Before Sunrise is actually a lot grittier and more frustrating than the flickering lights of the Ferris wheel suggest.
There is this massive misconception that Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke just showed up, looked pretty, and let Richard Linklater’s script do the heavy lifting. That is just wrong.
Basically, the original script was a skeleton. It was cerebral. It was "talky" in a way that felt like a screenplay, not a life. When Linklater cast Delpy, he wasn't just looking for an actress with a French accent; he was looking for a co-author. He needed someone to save the movie from being a male fantasy of what a "cool French girl" sounds like.
The Re-Write Nobody Talked About
For years, people assumed the dialogue was improvised. It wasn't.
Every single "um," "uh," and hair-tuck was rehearsed to death. But more importantly, the words themselves were largely forged by the actors. Delpy has been vocal lately—thankfully—about how she and Hawke rewrote about 90% of the original script. Think about that for a second. Most of the soul of that movie came from a 23-year-old woman fighting to make her character, Céline, a real person instead of a manic pixie dream girl prototype.
She brought her own obsessions to the table. Death. Philosophy. The weird, uncomfortable space between people.
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Why credits matter
Despite this massive creative output, Julie Delpy didn't get a writing credit on the first film. Neither did Ethan. They were young. They didn't know the "value" of what they were doing, or maybe they just trusted the process too much. It wasn't until the sequels—Before Sunset and Before Midnight—that they finally got the Oscar-nominated screenwriting credits they deserved.
If you look at the 1995 credits, it says "Written by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan." But the Céline we know? The one who talks about the "space between us"? That’s pure Delpy. She literally took her own life experiences and planted them into the script like seeds.
The Pay Gap That Stings
You’d think that co-writing and starring in an indie masterpiece would mean you're treated as an equal. You'd be wrong.
Here is the part that makes most fans of the trilogy a little sick: Julie Delpy was paid about a tenth of what Ethan Hawke made for the first movie. A tenth.
- Before Sunrise: She made 1/10th of Hawke's salary.
- Before Sunset: She made about half.
- Before Midnight: She finally drew a line in the sand.
Delpy eventually told the guys that if she wasn't paid exactly the same for the third film, she wasn't doing it. She was done being the "muse" who did half the work for a fraction of the check. It’s a harsh reminder that even in the world of "pure" indie cinema, the same old Hollywood structures were crushing the very women who made those films iconic.
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Is Céline Actually Julie?
It’s tempting to think so. They share a certain feistiness. They both have that specific blend of cynicism and romanticism. But Delpy is quick to point out that she’s a much more controlled creator than Céline is.
Céline is a romantic. Delpy is a filmmaker.
While Céline was wandering Vienna, Delpy was already thinking about how to direct her own features. She’s famously "not a girly girl" and has zero patience for the way men often write women as "half a dimension." She fought against every sexist or "fluffy" line Linklater or Hawke tried to pitch. If Céline feels like a real woman who actually has opinions on politics and feminism, it’s because Delpy was in the room going "bananas" every time the script drifted into male-fantasy territory.
The "Space Between"
One of the most famous lines in the movie—the idea that if there's any God, it isn't in us, but in the space between us—came directly from Delpy’s own thoughts. She was the one pushing the film toward naturalism. She hated "acting" that looked like acting. She wanted the groove.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Ending
People always argue about whether they met six months later.
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In the context of Julie Delpy Before Sunrise, the answer doesn't actually matter as much as the fear of the meeting. Delpy’s performance in those final scenes is a masterclass in suppressed anxiety. She isn't just a girl saying goodbye; she's a person realizing that she has just handed her heart to a stranger on a train.
She once mentioned that the films are really a study of time. And for her, the first film was about the arrogance of youth—the idea that you have all the time in the world to find another connection like that.
How to Watch it Now
If you’re going back to re-watch Before Sunrise (and you should), don't look at it as a romance. Look at it as a documentary of three people—Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy—trying to figure out if it’s possible to truly know another person in twelve hours.
Pay attention to:
- The way she initiates the first kiss (it was her idea to make Céline more proactive).
- The fake phone call scene. Delpy wrote that specifically to bridge the awkwardness of the third act.
- The look on her face when the train pulls away. That’s not "actress-for-hire" work. That’s co-creator work.
The impact of her contribution didn't just stay in 1995. It paved the way for her own directing career, including 2 Days in Paris, which feels like the chaotic, more realistic cousin of the Before series. She took the DNA of those conversations and stripped away the "movie magic" to show what relationships actually look like when you aren't in a beautiful European city with a ticking clock.
Next Steps for the Delpy Superfan:
To truly understand her influence on the "Before" world, watch her 2007 film 2 Days in Paris immediately after Before Sunrise. You'll see the exact moment where her personal writing style diverges from the Linklater "dreaminess" and enters her own brand of neurosis and wit. Also, check out the Before Midnight behind-the-scenes rehearsals on the Criterion Channel; they show exactly how much of the "spontaneous" dialogue was actually meticulously crafted through her and Hawke’s collaborative writing sessions.