Olga Kurylenko - TV Tropes

"With modelling, you provide an image that is fake; with acting you have to provide an image that's real."

Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (born November 14, 1979 in Berdyansk, then Ukrainian SSR, nowadays Russian-occupied Ukraine) is a Ukrainian-French actress and model.

She was discovered by a scout on the Moscow Metro while on holiday with her mother and subsequently became a successful model in France, where she took citizenship. She was noticed as an actress with roles such as Nika Boronina in the movie adaptation of the video game Hitman (2007), and as Camille Montes, who has made it her life's mission to avenge the death of her family in the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace (2008). She's maintained a steady output of supporting roles and some leading roles in-between ever since.

She is noted for her ability to act in English, French and Russian, and for taking on many Action Girl and Dark Action Girl roles.

Kurylenko has been married and divorced twice, with one son by her former partner, British actor Max Benitz.

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Selective Filmography: 

Tropes related to her works:

• Action Girl: Plays one in Quantum of Solace, Momentum, Kirot, Centurion and sees some action in Oblivion. She also plays one in Black Widow (2021) as The Dragon no less. There's also the ancient British Iceni queen Boudica.
• Agonizing Stomach Wound: Has had this happen in at least four different movies (namely in Kirot, Centurion, Erased, and Seven Psychopaths) and that's only including the times where she dies...
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Has a tendency to play composed, distant or downright aloof characters.
• Advertised Extra: Appears in the trailers and on the poster for Seven Psychopaths, even though she only has about five minutes of screentime.
• Chronically Killed Actor: Between 2007 and 2013, most of her roles involved fanservice and death - although in Hitman she only dies in an alternate ending - highlighted by how Seven Psychopaths has her spending her ten minutes of screentime having sex and getting killed. After a few years avoiding it, in 2018 she added two more deaths in Mara and Just a Breath Away (though she doesn't die in The Emperor of Paris).
• Dyeing for Your Art: Had her waist-length locks chopped down to a bob for Hitman and dyed her hair a few shades lighter for To the Wonder.
• Everything's Sexier in French: Is a French citizen and speaks as well as acts in the language.
• Fake Nationality: On the basis that she's Ukrainian-French:
  • She played the Pictish Scot Etain in Centurion
  • She has portrayed Americans in Seven Psychopaths, Momentum (2015) and Magic City.
  • She was a Bolivian in Quantum of Solace.
  • She also portrayed the Russian Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster in Black Widow (though she does have Russian ancestry).
  • She was a Georgian in Extraction 2.
  • The Celtic Briton queen Boudica.
• Ms. Fanservice: She tends to take off her clothes quite a bit.
• Sensual Slavs: Being a model from Ukraine (and having some Russian ancestry) helps.
  • She played a Russian Hooker with a Heart of Gold in Hitman and the Femme Fatale she plays in Quantum of Solace had a Russian mother, most notably.
  • In The Death of Stalin she's the only cast member who's a Slav (the rest of the cast is Britons and Americans playing Russians) and former Soviet citizen at that, and she's one of only two cast members who doesn't look like a troll (the other being Jason Isaacs as Zhukov).
• Statuesque Stunner: She's 5'9 (175cm).
• Vampires Are Sex Goddesses: Portrayed a very sexy vampiress in Paris, je t'aime and the people behind Vampire Academy are going for the younger and sexier route for her version of Headmistress Ellen Kirova.
• What Could Have Been: She was in the top three contenders to play Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe circa 2013 but ultimately lost out to Gal Gadot.

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