Valérie Lemercier interned in a psychiatric hospital at 23: the actress talks about what saved her life

Valérie Lemercier at Paris Fashion Week in September 2023. Pierre Teyssot MAXPPP – MAXPPP

Valérie Lemercier will be the president of the 49th edition of the Césars on Friday February 23, 2024. The actress, herself winner of three statuettes, answered questions from Paris Match, this February 15.

The one who has been mistress of ceremonies for the Césars three times will be the president of the 49th edition of the ceremony on February 23, 2024.  

On this occasion, Valérie Lemercier looked back on a complicated period in her life, when she was in her twenties, she confided in Paris-Match.

"I was falling apart"

At 23, Valérie Lemercier experienced depression and had the courage to go alone to the psychiatric hospital, with her suitcase, to get help. < em>"I didn'say anything about myself for a long time and then, one day, I decided to say that I had found myself at the Sainte-#39;hospital Anne at 23: I was falling apart. Psychoanalysis and psychiatry saved my life, she told our colleagues.

"Might as well talk about your failures"

During her therapy, Valérie Lemercier realized that she was not doing well because she was not expressing herself enough. The actress stayed a month at Sainte-Anne hospital where she was able to be treated: "I was going to leave for a life that didn' ;#39;wasn't the one I wanted. The day I started to (…) be able to say no, I started to work, to be an actress", shared the actress, quoted by Purepeople.

"The film about Céline Dion taught me to confide more, because she was an open book for a long time. However, I don't look at what people say about me on the Internet, because I would have the impression of jumping into an embankment of nettles to hurt myself. But if we talk about ourselves, we might as well talk about our failures", she confided to our colleagues at Paris Match.

Need guidance

Today again, the 59-year-old actress shares that she needs guidance to be calmed, including Femme Actuelle. "I sometimes count the steps that separate me from one place to another, because it's something tangible. I eat three eggs, three rusks, three kiwis. I need safeguards and I don't like changing my train times, explained the famous actress and director.