Olga Kurylenko

Olga Kurylenko: biography

Olga Kurylenko is a Hollywood actress and model of the Ukrainian origin. She has become known to the public after the appearance in the image of the new James Bond’s girlfriend in the movie Quantum of Solace.

Such movies with her participation as Oblivion, Seven Psychopaths, La corrispondenza have gained broad popularity.

Childhood and youth

Olga Kurylenko was born on the 14th of November, 1979 in the Ukrainian town of Berdiansk. She is a Scorpio according to her zodiac sign. Her father Konstantin Kurylenko is Ukrainian by his origin and her mother Marina Alyabysheva came from Irkutsk region and had Russian-Belarusian roots.

Her parents separated in a short time after their daughter's birth. Olga stayed to live with her mother who was suffering because of her husband’s leaving. They had to make ends meet as they hardly had enough money. Olga Kurylenko's mother was working as an ordinary art teacher and received a low salary. The family lacked money.

The woman gave private art lessons in attempts to earn additionally but hasn't improved the situation. Olga’s mother was forced to leave to earn money. The girl stayed on her grandparents’ care and moved to live with them. She had to be squashed together with other relatives in this tiny flat.

Olga Kurylenko remembers that during that period they had enough money only to buy products and she had to forget about the entertainments. But anyway she hasn't left her desire to receive a good education. The girl attended the music school where she was learning to play the piano and also visited the ballet school. At the same time, the future celebrity has never dreamed of becoming a pianist or a ballet dancer. At that time Olga Kurylenko even didn't think of the acting career and of popularity. The girl wanted to become a doctor as well as her beloved grandmother.

When Olga turned thirteen, her mother took her to Moscow. In the Russian capital, has managed to get a highly paid job. Once in the Moscow subway, Olga was noticed by the representative of the model agency who offered her to take part in the casting. But when the man learned that the girl was only thirteen years old, she didn't receive any more offers from the model agency. But Olga still had thoughts about the modeling future. In a short time, the girl began to attend the model courses.

Two years later Olga Kurylenko brought her portfolio to Madison agency. Her mother helped her to make this portfolio. The girl got this job. Having concluded the favorable contract, being just sixteen years, the girl went to Paris.

The model arrived in France having the basic knowledge of the English language. The girl didn't know the French language at all. At first, the girl had only one thought to come back to her homeland. But her first success helped her to overcome the difficulties of the behind the scenes of the model industry.

In a short time, the photos of the beautiful girl appeared on the covers of the popular magazines. Vogue, ELLE and Marie Claire published the model's photos with great pleasure, and the well-known Nivea cosmetic company even chose Olga Kurylenko as the face of their advertising campaign in Japan. After the Nivea campaign, the girl received similar offers from Clarins and Helena Rubinstein cosmetic brands.

By the end of the nineties, Olga Kurylenko who possesses beautiful appearance (her growth is 176 cm, and she weighs 64 kilos) has achieved great success in her model career. One could see the images of the Ukrainian model even on the large billboards in New York. The girl was showered with the offers from the model agencies. However, Kurylenko began to think about the short-termism model career. She began to take acting skills lessons at the prestigious Parisian drama school.

Movies

Olga Kurylenko had her debut in cinematography in 2001. The beginning actress received the episodic role in the series Largo Winch. Later there followed other roles among which it’s worth noting the role of Kurylenko in the low-budget erotic picture L'annulaire. In this movie, Olga appeared in the leading role, but the picture turned out to be a failure.

In 2006 the model has won the right to be considered the actress. This year Olga Kurylenko played the role of the vampire in the picture Paris, I Love You. The well-known actor Elijah Wood became her partner on the movie set. During the same period, there were released two more movies with the participation of the actress – Le porte-bonheur and Le serpent. Since that point, Kurylenko began to receive regular offers about the cooperation.

In 2007 the actress played the role of Nika Boronina in the movie Hitman. It was the screen adaptation of the cult video game. Together with the actress there appeared the actor Timothy Olyphant whose name is known to the admirers of the French and world cinematography. The same year the actress took part in the series Suspectes where she performed the role of Eva Pirès.

The next year presented to Olga Kurylenko one of the significant roles in the fighter Max Payne. But the actress got her main present in January of 2007. She was offered a role in the Hollywood picture Quantum of Solace. This is the sequel to the story about the agent 007, in which Olga received the role of James Bond’s girlfriend.

Of course, after the release of the movie Kurylenko became famous overnight. Moreover, since that time the actress began to receive offers from the eminent Hollywood directors. Since then eminent directors of Hollywood began to offer the film actress work. By the words of the actress, in this movie, she received great skills – she had to perform a number of tricks and to master different means of transformation.

In a short time the actress took part in the melodrama with the elements of fantasy under the title Tyranny, and in the drama picture There Be Dragons.

The picture Centurion which was released on the screens in 2010 became one of the best in the actress's cinematography. The actress performed the role of Etain, the representative of the Celtic tribe who hates the Romans for the murder of her relatives and closest people.

The admirers of the actress consider the image of Etain who made up her mind to revenge the representatives of the Roman Empire by any means – unique. The Kurylenko character was wearing Gothic make-up, was looking around with gloomy eyes and from time to time was sizzling ominously and killed her enemies with sharp objects. The fans repeatedly said that the actress managed to transform into the perfect monster and that this movie could be rather called the horror picture, than the drama based on the real events.

The film has become popular all over the world, and Olga Kurylenko and Michael Fassbender who performed the major roles in this movie have strengthened their positions in the movie industry. The next year the British director Kevin McDonald decided to continue the story of the disappearance of the IX Legion and shot the picture The Eagle.

Olga has enjoyed the shootings in this historical picture. By the words of the actress, the role in the movie which plot takes place in the 17-18th centuries was interesting to her.

In 2011 there was released the picture Land of Oblivion about the accident at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Planet. It is a joint French-Ukrainian movie in which Olga Kurylenko performed the leading role.

In 2012 the actress was engaged in the shootings of four films. But the most remarkable picture of that year which surpassed even the movie Avatar directed by James Cameron was the picture Empire of the Deep. This movie is one of the most expensive Chinese 3-D movies in which Olga Kurylenko appeared in the image of the Mermaid Queen.

The actress has had many roles for the next two years. Kurylenko appeared in the movies Oblivion, Vampires Academy, The November Man and others.

The fantastic fighter Oblivion has brought more popularity to Olga, as Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman has become actress’s partners on the movie set. Kurylenko has noted herself that during the preparation for this role she watched one more time the movie Solaris directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. According to the actress, Oblivion is similar to Solaris.

"In this movie, there is investigated the subject of memory, as this picture tells the story about the person who suffers from the partial memory loss – he remembers some things and doesn't remember others. Should we know the truth and trust everything that is told to us, and to live in oblivion. Jack is going to look for the truth and to face the truth", – Kurylenko told at the press conference in Moscow where she presented the movie together with Tom Cruise.

In 2015 the fans of Olga Kurylenko saw their favorite movie actress in the picture Momentum. Here the beautiful actress appeared in the role of the experienced thief and the femme fatale who crossed the road to the international syndicate.

In 2016 there appeared the information that Olga Kurylenko and Adam Driver would take part in the shootings of the new movie The Man Who Killed Don Quixote of the British director Terry Gilliam. The shootings of the picture which Gilliam had thought of doing 20 years ago began in October of 2016. The world premiere of the movie took place on the 18th of May, 2018 at 71st Cannes International Film Festival. Kurylenko received one of the major roles – she played the character of Jacqui.

The actress is a frequenter at various fashion displays and film festivals. In May of 2017, Olga admired Cannes when she appeared in front of the cameras in a magnificent translucent dress. The Hollywood actress was posing in the gorgeous outfit with embroidery and stones designed by Elie Saab. The actress added to her image a delicate make-up, set of long earrings and flirty hair setting.

By the way, the fans who were dreaming to see the movie star naked, in particular, the masculine half of the audience could estimate her slender body and slim legs in Maxim magazine. The actress took part in the frank shooting for the German version of the edition in 2008.

Personal life

Personal life of Olga Kurylenko is an object of constant media attention. In 1999 the actress got married for the first time. The photographer Cedric van Mol became her husband. At the same time, Olga became the citizen of France. Together the couple has lived for four years, but later they decided to break up.

The American businessman Damian Gabrielle became the second husband of Kurylenko in 2006. Just in half a year, they began to have problems in their marriage. She had children neither in the first marriage nor in the second one.

For a long time, Olga Kurylenko was dedicating her life for work and new roles only and concentrated her energy on the acting career. In 2015 the press began to talk about the love affair of Olga with the London actor and journalist Max Benitz despite the secrecy of the actress. In autumn of the same year, Olga gave birth to their son Alexander Max Horatio.

In April of 2017 for the first time "Bond's girlfriend" showed her son to the public. The actress published the picture of her child on her Instagram account. On the photo, the son of the Hollywood actress is capture while driving the car. The admirers were delighted with the new picture as the celebrity pleases the public with similar photos very seldom.

In the interview to the journalists, Olga repeatedly told that Paris is her favorite. The actress prefers versatile rest quiet as well as extreme. Kurylenko loves the movies directed by David Lynch and Lars Von Trier.

And the greatest dream for Olga is to earn one billion dollars. She needs this money to open the modern hospital in which there will be the latest medical technologies. And all the people who need it will get this for free. She has already taken the first step to the charity activity. The actress has helped to buy medical equipment for Berdiansk local hospital.

Even though Olga earns huge fees for the shootings in the movies, she doesn't refuse to take part in the advertising campaigns. She advertises cosmetic hair brands, perfumes, and even elite alcohol brand.

Olga Kurylenko at present

At present, the actress continues to work actively in the movies and advertising. In 2017 at International Toronto Film Festival there was premiered the movie The Death of Stalin directed by Armando Iannucci. The plot is focused on the narration of the situation around the death of the general secretary after which there began the struggle for the power. Nikita Khrushchev and Lavrentiy Beria also take part in this struggle. Olga Kurylenko received the secondary role, but it was the crucial role in the plot. The actress performed the role of the pianist Maria Yudina. It was she who put to the envelope with the phonograph record the note with the wish of death to Joseph Stalin. But you should remember that after all this is the political and satirical comedy.

In Russia, a lot of people met this picture as a mockery at the history. Moreover, there was published the open letter to the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation - Vladimir Medinsky from the Russian artists. As a result, two days before the premiere the movie’s distribution certificate was canceled.

In 2018 the actress enriched her filmography with a couple of pictures at once. In September there was premiered the thriller Mara featuring Olga in the significant role. The news about her participation in this movie appeared already in 2014. And when the fans of this genre learned that "the special effect person" Javier Botet would be Kurylenko's partner in this movie, they had no doubts in the "horror" of this picture. Botet's participation means that there will be something lean, flexible, terrible, with long curvy fingers. Before the movie came out, the actress began to publish scaring shots from this horror on her Instagram and Twitter.

It’s worth noting that Olga Kurylenko copes with skill with any movie genre. So, in April of 2018, there came out the fantastic thriller Dans la brume. The French actor Romain Duris became her partner on the movie set. He is famous for his roles in the following movies – Froth on the Daydream, Heartbreaker and All the Money in the World.

And on the 20th of September there came out the long-awaited sequel of the picture Johnny English Reborn - Johnny English Strikes Again. Olga Kurylenko will become the new beloved of the leading character. It's rather funny as earlier the actress performed the role of James Bond's girlfriend, and the series of the movies about the unfortunate spy is a parody to Bondiana.

Filmography

• 2001 – Largo Winch
• 2006 – Paris, je t'aime
• 2007 – Hitman
• 2008 – Max Payne
• 2008 – Quantum of Solace
• 2010 – Centurion
• 2011 – There Be Dragons
• 2011 – Land of Oblivion
• 2012 – Seven Psychopaths
• 2013 – Oblivion
• 2014 – Empires of the Deep
• 2015 – Momentum
• 2017 – The Death of Stalin
• 2018 – Mara
• 2018 – Johnny English Strikes Again

Photo