Maïwenn Le Besco
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Maïwenn Le Besco (born April 17, 1976 in Les Lilas, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, France) is a French actress sometimes referred to as Maïwenn or Ouin-ouin (French for "snif snif").
Maïwenn Le Besco is the daughter of actress Catherine Belkhodja and a Breton father (hence her Breton last name and the Breton surnames of their children), who ushered her into the entertainment industry at a young age (an experience later chronicled by Le Besco in her one-woman shows "Le Pois Chiche" and "I'm an Actress"). Originally a club performer and standup comedienne, Le Besco entered the movie business after a several filmmakers saw her comedy routine in Paris and offered her a chance to be a part of their upcoming project, the French horror film Haute Tension (English title: High Tension), in which she starred opposite Cécile de France. Perhaps Maïwenn's most prominent American film role was her appearance (albeit in heavy makeup and prosthetics) as the alien diva Plavalaguna in Luc Besson's The Fifth Element (1997).
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[edit] Private life
Maïwenn was at one time engaged to French director Luc Besson, with whom she had a daughter, Shana, in 1993. She also has a son, Diego.
[edit] As The Diva Plavalaguna
Maïwenn first learned about the role of the diva by Luc Besson, who was her fiance at the time. Luc originally wanted her to play the role from the start, but Maïwenn refused to take the role, believing it to be wrong that she would be working for the same man she was in a relationship with. Luc ended up finding another person to take the role, a German model, however, the model never showed up for screening. Maïwenn promised Luc she would take the role provided the model didn't show up again for the make-up screening, which was indeed the case. She performed the opera scene in front of a live audience consisting of actors who were for the first time seeing Maïwenn in her full make-up and costume, which took three hours of morning preparations every day while filming. After seeing the film, she confessed in an interview she was disappointed about how the opera scene was constantly being interrupted and was worried her performance would go unnoticed and unappreciated by viewers. Later, however, she states discovering the large online fanbase for the Diva eased her mind.[citation needed]
[edit] Complete filmography
[edit] Actress
- 1981 : L'Année prochaine... si tout va bien de Jean-Loup Hubert : Prune
- 1983 : L'Été meurtrier de Jean Becker : Éliane (Isabelle Adjani) jeune
- 1988 : L'Autre nuit de Jean-Pierre Limosin : Joan
- 1990 : Lacenaire de Francis Girod : Hermine
- 1991 : La Gamine de Hervé Palud : Carole Lambert
- 1996 : The Fifth Element (dir Luc Besson) : La Diva Plavalaguna
- 2001 : 8, rue Charlot de Bruno Garcia : Karine
- 2003 : Haute Tension de Alexandre Aja : Alex
- 2004 : Osmose de Raphaël Fejtö : une amie à la fête
- 2004 : Les Parisiens de Claude Lelouch : la chanteuse Shaa
- 2005 : Le Courage d'aimer de Claude Lelouch : Shaa
- 2006 : Pardonnez-moi de Maïwenn : Violette
[edit] Scénariste
- 2006 : Pardonnez-moi
[edit] Auteure de théâtre
- 2003 : Café de la gare : Le pois chiche
[edit] Director
- 2004 : I am an actrice
- 2006 : Pardonnez-moi
[edit] Producer
with the fundacon 2005 MAI productions society
- 2006 : Pardonnez-moi
[edit] External links
- (French) Maïwenn sur son site personnel
- (French) Liste et affiches des films de Maîwenn
- (English) Maïwenn Le Besco at the Internet Movie Database
