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Fashion industry favours heroines of east-slavic
origin. After a comet-like ascent of the Russian-born Natalia Vodianova
to the Olympus of glossy magazines, catwalks and TV-advertisements, the
world community gasps in awe at another name, which is usual to a
Russian ear - Olga Kurilenko.
Somehow, Cinderella stories are very popular regarding Russian-speaking supermodels. If you read the biographies, those were Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss who achieved success via laborious work and persistenсe. And girls from the former USSR are said to owe their success mainly to a miracle. Say, in relation to Vodianova, this is really partially true: in her childhood one of the most high-paid beauties in the world really had to go out in the street and sell cucumbers or underwear made by Chinese craftsmen in Shanghai cellars. But after all, similar legends are attempted to be compiled about Kurilenko as well. Allegedly, she was brought up in poverty by a single mother who couldn't afford any clothes; little Olya walked almost in rags, ate nearly garbage and should be grateful for her present full and rich life to a lucky coincidence which brought a Moscow model agency scout into metro where she saw the pretty Ukrainian girl.
It should be mentioned at once that all those tales are, mildly speaking, not too veritable. True, father left Olya and her mother when the girl was still very little. However, the mother of the future catwalk and movie star worked in the Ukrainian city of Berdyansk not just as somebody but as an instructor at a higher education institution. All of us come from the Soviet times and know perfectly well that educators in the USSR used to be in a much more comfortable financial state than nowadays. An only child, Olya was surrounded by the care and love of both her mother and granny and grew up a versatily developed girl. The spheres of her interest included dancing, music, painting, and taking part in school plays. As a reward for the girl's successful coverage of the school curriculum, mother used to take the daughter to fascinating trips to St.-Petersburg and Moscow during school vacations.
Partially the legend is true. 13-year-old Olga was really noticed by the fashion industry representatives in Moscow metro. The agency scout wrote down the girl's contact details and, as a matter of fact, that was it. Kurilenko returned to her native Berdyansk where she successfully continued her schooling and developing her maltifaceted talents. One can imagine how unexpected it was for Olga and her family to get a call from that very model agency scout that followed two months after the memorable trip to Moscow. After a trial trip, during which Olga spent two months in the capital of Russia taking an introductory course into the art of modelling, the girl returned home - she still needed to finish school. However, right after getting the high school diploma, Kurylenko left her home again. This time the trip turned out to be much more exciting and distant: the representatives of the French model agency Madison who had noticed the charming Ukrainian invited Olga for a training in Paris. There is hardly any need to mention how hard it was for the girl without any knowledge of French to be in a strange city and compete with lots of the same girls as she was - young, beautiful and ambitious. Olga confesses that her first week in Paris was the time of constant sobbing at night and everyday decisions to give everything up and go back home, to Mom. But Kurilenko had survived the first, hardest challenge in the haute couture world and was rewarded for it: during her career as a model she made an appearance on the pages of practically all the glossy magazines which were at least a bit famous. She also became the face of an advertising campaign of one of the world's leading cosmetic firms.
After divorce in early 2000 (the model had been married to a French photographer Cedric Van Mol for two years) Olga started to pay closer attention to cinema. As a result, her debut as a movie actress took place in a French film The Ring Finger (L'Annulaire) in 2005. To everyone's surprise Kurilenko disclosed a remarkable acting talent (obviously, the participation in school plays hadn't been in vain) - already for her debut role the newbie actress got a prize at Brooklyn International Film Festival. Further comes even more success: in Olga's track record there are already work with Elijah Wood in Paris, I Love You (Paris, je t'aime), roles in the drama The Serpent and a blockbuster Hitman. But Kurilenko's movie career should be definitely crowned by the part of Bond girl in the newest 007 film Quantum of Solace, which is due worldwide in the nearest future. Well, we shall only wait and see how our expatriate copes with the dream image of nearly every woman in the world.
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