Maïwenn

Maïwenn's career doesn't follow a straight line — and that's probably what makes it interesting. She started as a child actress, landing a notable role in the 1983 French hit L'été meurtrier opposite Isabelle Adjani's adult performance (TMDB). Then came a significant pause. Following her marriage to director Luc Besson and the birth of their daughter in 1993, she stepped back from acting, appearing only in a supporting role in Besson's Léon (1994) — credited, somewhat memorably, as "Ouin-Ouin" — and directing that film's making-of (TMDB). Her most internationally visible performance from this period came in Besson's The Fifth Element (1997), where she played the alien Diva Plavalaguna. A strange, singular role. It's the kind of part that gets you recognized in ways you don't entirely control. After her divorce from Besson, Maïwenn returned to France and reinvented herself as a stand-up comedian, performing an autobiographical one-woman show in Paris (TMDB). Filmmakers who caught her act brought her back into movies — she appeared in Alexandre Aja's horror film Haute Tension (2003), starring opposite Cécile de France (TMDB). By the time that film released, she'd already decided directing was where she was headed. Her debut feature, Pardonnez-moi (2006), earned her César nominations for Best First Feature Film and Most Promising Actress in 2007 (Wikipedia). Le bal des actrices followed in 2009, a mockumentary in which she appears as herself. Then Polisse (2011) — a social drama about a Paris child protection unit — won the Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and put her on the international map (TMDB). Mon roi (2015) competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. DNA (2020) was an Official Selection of that year's festival, which was cancelled due to COVID-19 (TMDB). And Jeanne du Barry (2023), her first period film, opened Cannes out of competition and posted the strongest French gross for a Cannes opener since 2013 (TMDB) — with Johnny Depp playing Louis XV, a casting choice that generated its own headlines. She co-wrote, directed, and starred in it. That's a lot to carry. She carried it.