Divorce Club (M6): the shooting reminded Michaël Youn of childhood memories

On July 14, 2020, Michaël Youn celebrated the end of love in Divorce Club. The 1h48 comedy features Arnaud Ducret, François-Xavier Demaison and Audrey Fleurot in a very special atmosphere. The first plays the role of Ben, a cuckolded husband who finds himself alone after five years of marriage. After finding Patrick, a former friend played by the second, he decides to move in with him. A joint tenancy of divorced people is then formed, which will gradually open its doors to other broken hearts. “When you break up… you always come across a good boyfriend or a good girlfriend who drags you into the depths of the night […] We all go through it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to come across such a cool place where these men and women can comfort each other by letting go like teenagers but with adult means”, explained Michaël Youn in the press kit for the film. A configuration that still greatly reminds him of his youth.

Michaël Youn: “I lived with a roommate for almost 15 years”

During his career, Michaël Youn will have lived, love stories. From the end of the 90s to the beginning of the 2000s, he was in a relationship with Juliette Arnaud, before falling in love with the Spanish Elsa Pataky. But since 2008, It’s with Isabelle Funaro that he shares his life, his daily life, and two children. Their daughter was born in 2011, and their son in 2019. The first birth considerably upsets the rhythm of life of the actor since until then, he lived … in a roommate! As he confides in the press kit of Divorce Club, “for having lived in a shared apartment for almost 15 years with friends, until the birth of [sa] daughter(so until the age of 38 anyway!), [il était] very very well placed to talk about the subject!” “Today, I wouldn’t be able to live in such a brothel, but frankly, as long as you don’t have children, it’s extraordinary. In any case if, like me at the time, you want to escape loneliness”he adds.

Michaël Youn, alone in charge of his film

Solo on the other hand, Michaël Youn decided to be a soloist in the production of his films. Divorce Club is the third feature film he has directed alone, after Fatal in 2010 and Long live France in 2013. The actor and director explains that the journey to bring his project to fruition was not easy. “I searched a bit artistically as an author and director. And when we are looking for ourselves, we deliver less quickly. Which was my case. And then you know, making a film is a lot of work”he explains. “You have to fight to convince the financiers, come up with the best script, make the film and then direct the post-production, ensure the promotion… all of this put together, that’s still projects that span 2 or 3 years. So, before you start, you better be sure that you really want to go there and that the project really deserves it. This gestation will have taken 7 years and I obviously didn’t think it would take so much time !”, he adds. Friday January 27, 2023 at 9:10 p.m., M6 broadcasts Divorce Club in the clear on television for the first time.