Olga Kurylenko Biography

Fast Facts

• Founded the charity Hopes and Homes, which represents underprivileged children of her native Ukraine
• Discovered by a modeling scout at the age of 13 while waiting on a train platform
• Frequently takes on roles involving action sequences
• Trained as a ballerina as a child, but was forced to give up her dreams of dancing professionally after being hit by a car at the age of 11
• After earning her first paycheck as a model in Russia, the first thing she bought was a VHS player
• Acquired French citizenship in 2001
• Because of the Chernobyl disaster in her home country, she was not allowed to eat the skin of fruit or go outside in the rain as a child