With grandparents as famous as Louis de Funès and Michel Galabru, the family name can sometimes be a little hard to bear. Despite everything, Julia de Funès and Sophie Galabru were perfectly successful in their careers and today, both women excel in similar fields. Both having become philosophers, they remained distant for a long time, without knowing each other, despite the closeness between their grandfathers. “When people stop me in the street, they no longer ask me if I am Louis’ granddaughter but if I know Sophie Galabru. I told myself that I absolutely had to meet her”says Julia de Funès, in an interview with the magazine Paris Matchon April 25.
And this meeting between the two women ended up taking place, 4 months ago, during a lunch that will remain engraved in their memories. “It was disturbing and upsetting, there is so many similarities in our lives“, reveals Sophie Galabru. Beyond exercising the same profession, Julia de Funès and Sophie Galabru also lived in the same place And their husbands are both financiers. Lots of common points for those who “have a passion for their grandfathers but have set the same rule: never talk about them”except on the occasion of this cross-interview for the 75th anniversary of Paris Match.
A difficult last name to bear
If we can understand the pride of being family of these two sacred monsters of French cinema, their notoriety has sometimes been complicated to accept. “I kept a low profile throughout my childhood. I felt guilty for a long time about having that name until the day I refused to hide. I remember a friend telling me when I was studying philosophy at the Sorbonne: ‘You wouldn’t see a teacher named Galabru.’ When I passed the aggregation, I had the impression of being perceived by the jury as a clown”tells the granddaughter of Michel Galabru, whose reconciliation with his ex-wife just before his death was one of the highlights of his life.
Same story with Julia de Funès, who chose the same professional path. “It is complicated to enter the academic world when your name is de Funès or Galabru. Not serious enough! And now that the diplomas are acquired, it’s quite the opposite, I have the right to the eternal: ‘She’s still much less funny than her grandfather’ “In short, it never works!”, jokes the granddaughter of Louis de Funès.
The interview is to be found in full on the site of Paris Match.
