Mathilda May is a French film actress and director. Her most well-known roles include portraying Space Girl in Lifeforce (1985) and Jeanne Gardella in Toutes peines confondues (1992).
May was born in Paris, France. Her father, playwright, screenwriter, and actor Victor Haïm, is of Sephardic Jewish (Greek and Turkish) descent. Her mother is the Swedish ballet teacher and choreographer Margareta Hanson. She studied under Christiane Vaussard at the Conservatoire de Paris, graduating at age 16. May's film work is primarily in French and made for the European market; she was the recipient of the César Award for Most Promising Actress in 1988 and the Prix Romy Schneider in 1989. Non-French films she has appeared in include Naked Tango (1990), Becoming Colette (1991) and The Tit and the Moon (1994). In the United States, she is best known for her role as an alien vampire in the science fiction-horror film Lifeforce (1985), directed by Tobe Hooper. She also appeared in the 1996 space adventure game Privateer 2: The Darkening. She played Isabella in The Jackal, a 1997 action film.
May recorded an album in 1992 called Joy of Love.
May was the writer and director for the theater show Open Space, which was performed in the Théâtre Jean-Vilar in the commune of Suresnes, the Théâtre du Rond-Point, and the Théâtre de Paris from 2013 to 2015. Open Space was a show without words and the story was presented by movement, music, and sound. May described the show as:It will be choreographed without it being dance, and musical without an instrument.
