“To live happy, live hidden”. An adage that suits actress Élodie Bouchez, who is celebrating her fifty years today, as well as her partner. If we have more often seen him behind a motorcycle helmet, as he has also made discretion his second skin, Thomas Bangalter succumbed to the charm of the actress in 1999. They were then both in Los Angeles, and Aure Atika will act as matchmaker.
Love at first sight is immediate, as their mutual careers take off. Love obviously gives them wings. He exploded in 2000 with the worldwide hit One more Time with his Daft Punk accomplice, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. She continues filming, courted by all the directors since her César for Best Actress the previous year for The Dream Life of Angels.
From their union two children were born, Tara and Roxan, aged 22 and 17. Despite their respective success, the couple has always cherished their private life like a treasure. Rarely have they indulged in confidences and their public appearances together are sporadic.
A couple that lasts
Nevertheless, in 2023, in promotion for I would always see your faces by Jeanne Herry (for which she was again nominated for a César for best supporting actress), Élodie Bouchez indulged in some indiscretions about her relationship with Thomas Bangalter and its culture of secrecy.
In the columns of Le Monde in March 2023, she confided: “I never had the impression that we were hiding from each other. It corresponds to who he is and who I am. We got along well from the start” before continuing: “Already, when I read a book and there is the author’s photo, it hinders my reading. And then I have always been aware of the flash in the pan aspect of this profession. It’s a way to counter it.” However, the Pupille actress nevertheless admits the complexity of dealing with the success of others: “The difficulty, sometimes, in a couple of artists, is the moment when one receives more attention than the other”.
Despite everything, Élodie Bouchez, more in love than ever, seems not to have suffered too much from the colossal success of Daft Punk: “Thomas is so comfortable with it that he was able to both flourish and let me flourish. Absolute rockstar status without the ego that it requires – we mustn’t forget that he has makes music because he failed at the Ecole Louis-Lumière!” Humility, the secret of their longevity? Certainly !