“Too bad that…”: Macha Méril (Parallel investigation), this project about her late husband Michel Legrand about which she has things to say

Actress in Parallel InvestigationMacha Méril stars alongside Florence Pernel and Stomy Bugsy in this fiction broadcast on France 3. Interviewed by TV Starthe widow of Michel Legrand plays a reassuring mother to a journalist who finds herself involved in a criminal case. A shoot which left him with many very good memories. “With Florence Pernel, it’s a story of friendship that goes back to Marie-Galante, a miniseries in Argentina more than thirty years ago. When I was asked to play his mother, I said yes! However, I have never had much confidence in stories written for television, which are often full of clichés.“, she confided.

The film on Michel Legrand, “yet another biographical documentary”

Coming back to the film Once upon a time, Michel Legrand released on December 4, 2024, the one who was married to the composer from 2014 to 2019 explains that she was ultimately a little disappointed with this project. She says: “It’s yet another biographical documentary with archives. Too bad the director didn’t talk about the angel that Michel had become at the end of his life. Old age imposes an urgency and a certain energy to act. He wanted to do ever more ambitious things. It was his philosophy and it’s mine too“.

Macha Méril: her crush on Michel Legrand when she was 22

As a reminder, Macha Méril met Michel Legrand for the first time when she was 22 years old. The director and the actress fell in love immediately. But at that point, their relationship was impossible. “I was 22 and he was 30. Michel had just won the Palme d’Or with Les Parapluies [Les Parapluies de Cherbourg] and I was a young New Wave actress. Rio was organizing a film festival with Catherine Deneuve and others. In the evening, the French went to bed, Michel and I danced. (…) At one point, we looked at each other, we said: ‘Damn, we love each other…’ But I was going to get married and he had a little child. We didn’t want to sow misfortune around us“, she confided to Parisian. Fifty years later, they found each other again and never left each other again.