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Olga Kurylenko: More than just a pretty face

LOS ANGELES — Olga Kurylenko may have achieved fame as a Bond girl but the French model-actress has proven that she’s more than just a pretty face who wears a killer frock well.

LOS ANGELES — Olga Kurylenko may have achieved fame as a Bond girl but the French model-actress has proven that she’s more than just a pretty face who wears a killer frock well.

Since her debut English-speaking role in The Hitman, Kurylenko has had directors beating a path to her door. Never mind that she lost the Wonder Woman spot to Israeli model Gal Gadot, her current role in the Pierce Brosnan spy flick November Man was written specially with her in mind surprisingly, even before she was handpicked by Daniel Craig to be his Bond girl in Quantum Of Solace.

“Yes, I got the call that Pierce Brosnan wanted me and, at that time, Bond wasn’t even on the horizon yet,” she said.”

But it wasn’t without trepidation. November Man director Roger Donaldson admitted he was “nervous” about getting Kurylenko because of the colossal hit that Quantum Of Solace eventually proved to be. “(I thought) she was going to be a prima donna, but she’s actually a great team player and had no pretentions. Plus, she has got real depth and is talented — that’s her performing (French composer) Erik Satie on the piano in the movie.”

The beauty is no slouch. Kurylenko has worked with Hollywood power player Tom Cruise in Oblivion; outre director Terence Malick in To The Wonder; and, most recently, in Australian actor Russell Crowe’s directorial debut, The Water Diviner.

She is also quite capable in the language department: Apart from her native Russian, Kurylenko is fluent in English and picked up French fairly quickly after moving to Paris as a teenager. And when Crowe asked her how fast she could learn Turkish, she didn’t hesitate.

“If there’s one thing I know about myself, it’s that I really can learn languages. You want me to learn Chinese tomorrow? I’ll learn it,” she once said.

The Ukraine-born actress’ level-headedness about her current “it” status belies a tough upbringing, during which her mother struggled to put food on the table after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then at 13, she was discovered in Moscow by a talent scout while on holiday from their port-city hometown of Berdyansk.

At 16, she was already in Paris, sending money home to her mother while gracing the glossy covers of Marie Claire and Madame Figaro as well as sashaying down the catwalk for Roberto Cavalli and Kenzo.

Kurylenko easily inhabits fashion and acting roles like a second skin, but it’s more than just playing dress-up. Her next film, The Water Diviner, is about a man who travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to locate his three sons and finds love with a hotel owner, played by Kurylenko. And according to Crowe, she was “a revelation”.

Kurylenko was equally positive about Crowe. “When he gives me direction, I don’t just hear it, I can feel it,” she said. “I like being directed by him; this is how an actor should be spoken to and given direction. We did so few takes and never needed any overtime. We were done by 5pm on most days and it was often still sunny outside. He knows what he’s doing.”

So what is she looking for in her next project?

“Anything that’s surprising,” she said. “I recently did Seven Psychopaths (a black comedy), (so) maybe I would like to try to do more comedies. The script has to touch me, though there are certain people you just want to work with — despite the script.”

November Man is out in cinemas now.

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