Olga Kurylenko may not be an A-list talent just yet, but she’s definitely starting to prove herself amongst the Hollywood elite. After earning a role as the Bond girl in Quantum of Solace, she went onto grab parts in To The Wonder, Seven Psychopaths and Centurion. Now, with serious buzz surrounding her name and many in the industry starting to sit up and take notice of the Ukrainian born actress, her latest film, Oblivion, is about to make its way into theatres.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, and starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, the sci-fi epic tells the story of Jack Harper (Cruise), a drone repairman stationed on Earth. While on a mission to extract resources, he rescues a woman named Julia (Kurylenko) from a crashed spaceship. Though a stranger at first, her arrival sets off a series of events that make Jack question everything he thought he knew.
Recently, Kurylenko sat down with us for an interview at the press day for the film in Los Angeles. While there she discussed what it was like working with Tom Cruise, what appealed to her about the character and more.
Check it out below.
We Got This Covered: This film is Joseph Kosinski’s baby in a way. When it came to the role, did he give you a lot of free reign to further expand and develop your character more than he ever imagined. Or was it kind of the opposite?
Olga Kurylenko: Well, it’s always about teamwork. We spoke a lot and had a lot of meetings between myself Joseph and Tom. We would discuss the characters and their backstories and flesh it all out. We grew the characters together. We spoke a lot. We just had a lot of conversations. It was just a question of exchanging ideas and talking. That’s quite often the case.
We Got This Covered: What’s the biggest challenge you faced playing your character in this film and what attracted you to the role?
Olga Kurylenko: I loved the fact that there was this mystery to the character and that I couldn’t reveal everything about her right away. The fact that she had to uncover her story throughout the story intrigued me. She’s a completely different character in the end than in the begininning. All that mystery that surrounded the character was probably the toughest part of playing her, but I loved that element of the character.
We Got This Covered: You’ve worked with two of the biggest movie stars in the world (Daniel Craig and Tom Cruise), can you compare and contrast working with each of them?
Olga Kurylenko: Well, one thing that they have in common is that they are both action heroes. They are involved a lot in action films and they both do their stunts by themselves. They train a lot, physically work a lot and are very hard working. Tom though, in a way, he’s fascinating. He knows how to do everything. It’s very inspiring to work with him. Don’t try to outshine him though. There was a stun guy who tried to compete in running with Tom and Tom ran much faster than him.
It was also very interesting working with him creatively. He gives so much to the other actors on set, he’s such a generous partner. I’ve never seen him just sit in his trailer. He’s there for every scene, he never leaves the set, even if I told him that I didn’t need him. He’s involved 100% and that’s a wonderful thing. He’s just so supportive and helped me through a number of my stunts. He’s not just an actor who is there to read his lines, he knows how things work and you feel safe with him.
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