Nicole Holofcener: ‘Actors over 50 have distorted their faces so badly’

In our series in which readers ask the questions, the film-maker behind Friends with Money and The Last Duel on popping Valium in a snowstorm on a flight to her first premiere - and Scorsese nodding off during her student film

A lot of your films have, I think, been autobiographical. How much of yourself were you able to put into The Last Duel [Holofcener focused on the section from the point of view of Jodie Comer's Marguerite]? Is the concept" of your third to debunk the ways in which male narratives distort women's stories? Did that feel apiece with your previous work? And if this was a big break from the norm for you - in terms of period, location etc - how did that feel? Refreshing or unnerving? bumble1

Yes, my movies are semi-autobiographical, and I can't say that I'm aware of anything similar in Marguerite to me except that she's smart and educated and probably much braver than I would be. But she had a really rotten life and didn't have much to lose until she had her baby. And, yes, that is the point of the movie. It is a bait-and-switch. You think it is one kind of male historical sword fight movie and it becomes a human story about this woman and her assault and the delusion of men - which I cover in my own films, occasionally.