‘We had to take a break’: success, burnout and Alban Ivanov’s return to Challenger

Alban Ivanov recently celebrated his 40th anniversary. And for that occasion, he returns to cinemas with Challenger, the French answer to Rocky Balboa’s laughter, uppercuts and an incredible challenge that pits this amateur boxer against one of the great champions of the moment in the prism of the unexpected circumstances of the competition.

This film, which marks his reunion with beloved director Varante Soujian after Inséparables, Walter and La Traversée (“He calls me his Berene Bejeux!”), it’s also a return to form and strength at the front of the stage for the Narbonne native, following a fall that stopped the show after a few minutes of performance two years ago.

Someone who did not stop and – by his own admission – could not say “no” enough after Le Sens de la Fête 2017, thoughtfully analyzes the situation on the microphone of AlloCiné as part of our new format. big screenThey shot him in the room Infinity at the Le Grand Rex cinema in Paris.

“we had to take a break”

“We had to rest before we had a real physical problem. So obviously it wasn’t the right time for it, but it was. It happened. I said, ‘Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not feeling well, I’m going and then I disappeared, back in the paddock ( laughs)”..

“You see, by saying yes and everything happening together, you actually don’t have time to evaluate what’s happening to you and be able to manage it. So at some point, I just had to stop. car and so I stopped everything that I would do to myself in the forest and we will go back.,

The Olympics in 2018, I was still there because I hadn’t passed all my childhood, the Olympics, like suddenly, once, twice, three times it’s normal, but then we say: “Yes, 600”..

“And it feels really good!”

in this difficult time, Alban Ivanov He was able to rely on the support of his peers, including Vincent Cassel: “He finds out that I’m not well and one day he called me and I explained to him what’s happening to me, I say: “I don’t know, I’m tired, I don’t know where I’m coming from. I have to appreciate that. He said, “How old are you?” I say, “38” and he says, “Yes, it’s okay, you’re on time, it’s happening, it’s good.”.

“And it’s really good because you have an experienced guy who tells you that it happened, he knew it was very good, I said to myself. On the right track, it’s normal, it’s normal, but in these moments, even your loved ones, your The family, the people who are not affected by it, they have a hard time understanding it, because we are selling dreams among others, it is very surprising to see someone who does not live it well..

“Success also brings a lot of loneliness. And people don’t see that because that’s not what we show. But still, after the show, in front of 5,000 people, you’re alone in your room, you get the impression that it’s not… They They imagine a dream life for you, but it’s not like that, you’re all alone, far from your family, in your familiar city, so at some point you say to yourself: ‘I have to manage the moments of solitude with my family, because otherwise it will hurt me “.