Actor Mei Mac was born in Birmingham in 1992, the daughter of Hong Kong immigrant parents. She recently finished a run in Kimber Lee’s untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play, a blistering comic attack on prejudice and casual stereotyping, and is now returning to the role of Mei, the four-year-old heroine of My Neighbour Totoro, in the stage adaptation of the beloved Studio Ghibli film, a performance for which she became the first east Asian woman to be nominated for the best actress Olivier award. An activist as well as a performer, Mac is the co-founder of Rising Waves, a mentoring organisation to support British east- and south-east Asian (BESEA) actors.
How does it feel to be playing a four-year-old again?
Coming back to Totoro feels like coming home. I feel like I gave a piece of my soul to the show. The beauty of Phelim McDermott’s direction is that every member of the team has been invited to pour themselves into the work and feel like they have artistic influence.
