Audrey Tautou ‘terrible’ and will quit films ‘soon’

French actress Audrey Tautou has insisted that she is "terrible" at what she does and has declared - for the second time in five years - that she will quit acting "very soon".

Tautou made her bizarrely self-deprecating remarks in an interview to mark the release of Beautiful Lies in cinemas this Friday. Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, she said that when she watches her old films, she thinks: "Thank God that at the point I made that film I didn't realise the extent to which I was terrible. Oh, mon dieu! Mon dieu!"

She also claimed to always be surprised to be picked for a role by a director, "because I never understand why they like me". She says she is not "super-attached" to her career and will quit acting soon to pursue her other loves, sailing and drawing.

The Amelie actress first expressed an interest in pursuing another career in 2006, after starring alongside Tom Hanks in the screen adaptation of Dan Brown's bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Whether due to the nature of Hollywood as she claimed, or the very public slating the movie received, Tautou announced that she was going to quit acting by 30, claiming, "I'd be happier doing something that doesn't leave me so exposed".

If critics are correct in their assessment of her latest film, Tautou might be advised to take to the seas sooner rather than later: Beautiful Lies is already being dismissed as underwhelming and chauvinistic. ·