CECILE de France hates to give interviews. “It’s the part of my job that I don’t like,” the tall, pixie-haired French actress confesses during – of all things – an interview.

“It’s very, very hard for me. You have to talk about yourself, and the character of Cecile de France is not interesting to me.”

But here she is on a visit to New York, doing 12 straight hours of those dread interviews to promote “High Tension,” the French horror flick opening here on Friday.

Her character is Marie, a student stalked by a crazed killer during a visit to a secluded country house.

The film was shot in Romania – “the country’s the same as France, but it’s cheaper” – over two unpleasant months.

“The conditions were tough,” she reports. “It was cold, it was dirty, it was hard. I was barefoot, in jeans and a T-shirt. I just wanted to be in warmth.”

De France, who turns 30 on July 17, was born in Belgium. She moved to Paris as a teenager to study acting, and still lives there.

American audiences might know her from the Jackie Chan version of “Around the World in 80 Days.”

“I learned a lot from watching him,” she says of Chan. “He’s very involved in what he does. I have a lot of respect for him.”

This being her first visit to New York, she wasted no time – touring SoHo and the Village and catching two shows, “Hurlyburly” and “Avenue Q,” in just two days.

“I love New York,” she gushes. “I was surprised it is so green, a lot of trees. And I was surprised to see the architecture is so beautiful. I thought it was only cold buildings, but it’s not. It’s beautiful.”