In 2004, Irish-born union official Maureen Kearney hit the headlines. She was violently attacked in her own home after revealing a secret contract between the Chinese state and the French nuclear energy company she worked for. Now this gripping whistleblower tale is a feature, La Syndicaliste, starring French cinema legend Isabelle Huppert. ‘Everybody seems to have forgotten about the story,’ she shrugs. ‘I didn’t know it. I knew it when I read the book and the script.’ 

The film re-teams her with Jean-Paul Salomé, the director with whom she made 2020’s Mama Weed, although the subject matter will immediately draw comparisons to Elle, Paul Verhoeven’s 2016 rape-revenge movie that saw Huppert nominated for her first ever Oscar. ‘I didn’t connect it as I was doing it. But then, I thought, “oh, yeah, there are some kind of connections”. You can compare, a little bit, the reactions to what happened to her: very cool, a little bit cold.’

What ‘happened’ is that Kearney’s account of her home invasion attack becomes increasingly discredited, highlighting the way women can often be dismissed or, worse, turned upon when it comes to reporting abuse. Huppert, though, brushes off the idea that her participation was vital to get the film off the ground. ‘Certainly people will speak about this story because I did the film, but maybe someone else would have done it if I didn’t do it,’ she sniffs. ‘Everybody is subject to be replaced.’

Still, it’s nigh-on impossible to replace an actress like Huppert, with over 140 movie credits and two best actress wins at the Cannes Film Festival to her name. After all this time, on screen and stage, what draws her to a role? ‘Different things every time but let’s say the director and, more concretely, the dialogue,’ she answers. ‘I remember many times, that I was immediately attracted to a film through the dialogue. And it’s really difficult to write good dialogue.’

In cinemas from Friday 30 June.