Jean-Marc Vallee on break from direction

Los Angeles : Director Jean-Marc Vallee, who just received a timely career tribute at the Vancouver Film Festival, is on a break from direction for eight months.

"I burnt myself out. I'm so tired. I'm on a break, have been for a month, and I have seven more to go. I'm taking eight months to recharge my batteries and to get my life back," the 55-year-old told hollywoodreporter.com.

Valle helmed all of the episodes of the "Big Little Lies" last year, for which he won an Emmy as best director, and this year he shot the thriller series "Sharp Objects".

He added: "It's a marathon, a Herculean effort for a director to direct all the episodes. I shot 180 days in 20 months, Big Little Lies and then Sharp Objects. They were overlapping."

Vallee said it wasn't his choice to become a workaholic since six years ago earning multiple Oscar nominations for
"Dallas Buyers Club".

"It just happened. And I've paid. I didn't go through a burnout, but I need the break I'm on now," he insisted.

Vallee's upcoming projects include "Les Temps Magiques", the third of a film trilogy he did during the 1990s after "Les Fleurs Magiques" and "Les Mots Magiques", with the feature script already written.