Released in 1980, and multi-broadcast since then on small screens, La Boum has become a cult film that crosses generations. And the characters of Vic, Pénélope or Mathieu have become familiar… But if the film kicks off the brilliant career of Sophie Marceau, it was unfortunately not the case for the other young actors on the poster of this big success of the 7th French art. Sheila O’Connor in particular, who embodied the BFF of Vic, has since made only rare appearances in cinema and on television, before deciding to become a screenwriter. Not without difficulty and without fighting against an addiction to alcohol that she had developed in her adolescence as she confided, a few months ago, to Faustine Bollaert in her program “It starts today” on France 2: “I entered underage places that were forbidden to minors. And I even had unforgettable evenings at the Palace. (…) Between the ages of 17 and 22, I was addicted, but really. I drank a lot of alcohol”, she explained.
This Friday August 19, in the program “They knew glory: what became of them?”, on TFX, the former Penelope spoke of her relationship with the star of La Boum, Sophie Marceau. On the big screen, the two young girls play inseparable friends who share all their secrets. But what about in real life? In a sequence, Sheila O’Connor puts an end to all the fantasies around this friendship which was mainly written for the screenplay of the film: “We were accomplices, colleagues, but we were not so accomplices as that in life. We were accomplices on the screen. Afterwards, we never bit each other. But we were cute (cute, editor’s note), I understand that it still rained. It was well seen at the time,” she says. And to add that she no longer has any contact today with her then partner. Becoming famous at a very young age, (Sheila was only 13 and a half, editor’s note), obviously has its share of dreams and disillusions which can lead to self-destruction… Many young artists have suffered the consequences, like a Macaulay Culkin. And to sometimes face situations that are difficult to manage, as she told Faustine Bollaert: “In the mailboxes, we received threatening letters with skulls, written in blood,” she says. “Wickedness, jealousies. There, we manage strangely, because we say to ourselves: ‘But why am I triggering this in others? What did I do ? It’s a nice film’”, she recalls, still bruised.