Empire Award
17th Empire Awards
220px An Empire award
Awarded for	Excellence in cinematic achievements
Presented by	Empire
Country	United Kingdom
First awarded	1996
Last awarded	March 25, 2012 (2012-03-25)
Official website	2012 Official website

An Empire Award is an accolade bestowed by Empire, Britain's biggest selling film magazine, to recognize excellence of professionals in the local and global film industry. The awards are voted for by readers of the magazine and in an annual ceremony, the Empire Awards, the winners are presented with the award which is covered by Empire and sometimes also televised. They were sponsored by Sony Ericsson^[1] between the 8th and the 13th Empire Awards with the exception of the 12th which was without a ceremony,^[2] and since the 14th Empire Awards are sponsored by Jameson Irish Whiskey.^[3]

The first Empire Awards ceremony was held on 1996, to honour outstanding film achievements of the 1995 film season. The most recent ceremony, honouring films in 2011, was held at Grosvenor House Hotel on March 25, 2012.

Empire Awards categories[link]

Award categories as of 2012[link]

• Best Actor: 1996 to present
• Best Actress: 1996 to present
• Best British Film: 1996 to present; In 2002 it was known as "Sky Movies Best British Film"
• Best Comedy: 2006 to present
• Best Director: 1996 to present
• Best Film: 1996 to present
• Best Horror: 2006 to present
• Best Newcomer: 1996 to present; It was known as "Best Debut" from 1996 to 2002; in 2007 it was split to "Best Male Newcomer" and "Best Female Newcomer"
• Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 2006 to present; In 2009 it was known as "Best Sci-Fi/Superhero"
• Best Thriller: 2006 to present
• Done In 60 Seconds Award: 2008 to present

Retired awards[link]

• Best British Actor: 1996 to 2005
• Best British Actress: 1996 to 2005
• Best British Director: 1997 to 2001; 2005
• Sony Ericsson Scene of the Year: 2003 to 2007; In 2007 it was known as "Scene Of The Year"
• Sony Ericsson Soundtrack Award: to 2008 - 2009; In 2009 it was known as "Best Soundtrack"

Special Empire Awards[link]

Current special awards[link]

• Empire Hero Award: 2010 to present
• Empire Inspiration Award: 1997; 1999 to 2002; 2004 to 2006; 2008; 2010 to present
• Icon Award: 2006; 2008 to present

Retired special awards[link]

• Actor Of Our Lifetime: 2009 only
• Contribution to Cinema: 2000 only; Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema: 2005 to 2006; Outstanding Contribution To British Film from 2008 to 2010
• Empire Career Achievement Award: 2004 only
• Empire Independent Spirit Award: 2002 to 2005
• Empire Lifetime Achievement Award: 1996 to 2004; 2006;
• Empire Movie Masterpiece: 1999 to 2000
• Heath Ledger Tribute: 2009 only
• Icon of the Decade: 2005 only

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Jameson Empire Awards 2012 official website (current ceremony)
• Empire Awards at IMDb

Viggo Mortensen
Mortensen at a award ceremony to honor Dennis Hopper in March 2010
Born	Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. (1958-10-20) October 20, 1958 (age 53) New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	St. Lawrence University
Occupation	Actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter
Years active	1984–present
Spouse	Exene Cervenka (m. 1987–1998) «start: (1987)–end+1: (1999)»"Marriage: Exene Cervenka to Viggo Mortensen" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Viggo_Mortensen)

Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. (born October 20, 1958) is an American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of the 1990s, including The Indian Runner (1991), Carlito's Way (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Daylight (1996), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), G.I. Jane (1997), A Perfect Murder (1998), and A Walk on the Moon (1999).

Mortensen made his major breakthrough in 2001 with his role as Aragorn in the epic film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. In 2005, Mortensen won critical acclaim for David Cronenberg's crime thriller A History of Violence. Two years later, another Cronenberg film Eastern Promises (2007) earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Other well-received films in recent years have included Appaloosa (2008) and the 2009 film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road.

Aside from acting, his other artistic pursuits include fine arts, photography, poetry, and music. In 2002, he founded the Perceval Press to publish the works of little-known artists and authors. Mortensen is politically active. He campaigned for Dennis Kucinich in the 2008 United States presidential election, and later endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Early life[link]

Mortensen was born in New York City. His mother, Grace Gamble (née Atkinson), was American, and his father, Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr., was Danish; the two met in Norway.^[1][2] His maternal grandfather was from Nova Scotia, Canada,^[3][4] and his maternal grandmother's family was from New England.^[5][6]

The family moved to Venezuela, then Denmark, and eventually settled in Argentina, taking residency in the Argentine provinces of Córdoba, Chaco and Buenos Aires, where he attended primary school and acquired fluent Spanish, while his father managed chicken farms and ranches.^[7] They remained there until Mortensen was eleven, when his parents divorced. With his mother he returned to New York, where he spent the rest of his childhood, graduating from Watertown High School in Watertown, New York.^[8]

He then attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, earning a degree in 1980. Afterward, he went to Europe and lived in Spain, England, and Denmark, where he took various jobs such as driving a truck in Esbjerg and selling flowers in Copenhagen. After two years, he returned to the United States to pursue an acting career.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Acting career[link]

After several years of experience in live theater, Mortensen made his first film appearance playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness (Mortensen had actually acted in at least one prior film, The Purple Rose of Cairo, but his scenes in the latter film were deleted from the final cuts). Also in 1985, he was cast in the role of Bragg on Search for Tomorrow. Mortensen's 1987 performance in Bent at the Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles, won him a Dramalogue Critics' Award. Coincidentally, the play, about homosexual concentration camp prisoners, was originally brought to prominence by Ian McKellen, with whom Mortensen later costarred in The Lord of the Rings. In 1987 Mortensen guest starred as a corrupt police detective on the hit series Miami Vice.

During the 1990s, Mortensen appeared in supporting roles in a variety of films, including Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady, Young Guns II, Prison, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Sean Penn's The Indian Runner, The Crew, which won the São Paulo Film Festival Audience Award, Brian de Palma's Carlito's Way, Crimson Tide, G.I. Jane, Daylight, A Walk on the Moon, American Yakuza, Charles Robert Carner's remake Vanishing Point, Philip Ridley's two films The Reflecting Skin and The Passion of Darkly Noon, A Perfect Murder and Gus Van Sant's Psycho (1998 remakes of two Alfred Hitchcock's movies Dial M for Murder and Psycho), 28 Days, and The Prophecy, with Christopher Walken. Of these roles, Mortensen was probably best known for playing Master Chief John Urgayle in G.I. Jane.^[9]

Mortensen at the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, December 1, 2003.

Mortensen's major mainstream breakthrough came in 1999, when Peter Jackson cast him as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. According to the Special Extended Edition DVD of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Mortensen was a last-minute replacement for Stuart Townsend, and would not have taken the part of Aragorn had it not been for his son's enthusiasm for the J. R. R. Tolkien novel. In the The Two Towers DVD extras, the film's swordmaster, Bob Anderson, described Mortensen as "the best swordsman I've ever trained." Mortensen often spent days hiking to the film's remote locations, in costume and carrying his sword, in order to appear authentically travel-worn; he also performed all of his own stunts, and even the injuries he sustained during several of them did not dampen his enthusiasm. At one point during shooting of The Two Towers, Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, and the scale double for John Rhys-Davies all had fairly serious injuries, and during a shoot of them, running in the mountains, Peter Jackson jokingly referred to the three as "the walking wounded." Also, according to the Special Extended Edition DVD of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Mortensen purchased the two horses, Uraeus and Kenny, whom he rode and bonded with over the duration of the films.

In 2004, Mortensen starred as Frank Hopkins in Hidalgo, the story of an ex-army courier who travels to Arabia to compete with his horse, Hidalgo, in a dangerous desert race for a contest prize.

In 2005, Mortensen starred in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. He was nominated for a Satellite Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for this role. In the DVD extras for A History of Violence, David Cronenberg relates that Mortensen is the only actor he'd come across who would come back from weekends with his family with items he had bought to use as props on the set.

Interviewed by eTalk Daily at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, for A History of Violence

In 2006, he starred as Captain Diego Alatriste in the Spanish language film Alatriste, based on the series of novels The Adventures of Captain Alatriste, written by the Spanish writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

In September 2007, the film Eastern Promises, directed by David Cronenberg, was released to critical acclaim for the film itself and for Mortensen's performance as a Russian gangster on the rise in London. His nude fight scene in a steam room was applauded by Roger Ebert: "Years from now, it will be referred to as a benchmark."^[10] Mortensen's performance in Eastern Promises resulted in his winning the Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film award from the British Independent Film Awards.^[11] He was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.^[12]

In 2009, Mortensen appeared as himself in the film Reclaiming The Blade,^[13] in which he discussed his passion for the sword and his sword-work in films such as The Lord of the Rings and Alatriste.^[13] Mortensen also talked about his work with Bob Anderson, the swordmaster on The Lord of the Rings, Alatriste, Pirates of the Caribbean and many others.^[13]

In 2009, Mortensen performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.^[14]

While it was reported in April 2009 that Mortensen had, at least temporarily, retired from film acting,^[15]Mortensen said he was misquoted. In a 2012 interview, he denied that he ever said he was retiring, only that his didn't have "plans to do another movie" at the time and that he was "taking a little break now. I don’t have anything lined up.”^[16]

In 2010 he joined the cast of The Road, a film adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name,^[17] and collaborated with David Cronenberg for a third time on A Dangerous Method.^[18]

After two decades, Mortensen returned to theatre in 2011, starring in Ariel Dorfman's Purgatorio in Madrid.^[19]

Perceval Press[link]

With part of his earnings from The Lord of the Rings, Mortensen founded the Perceval Press publishing house — named for the knight from the legend of King Arthur — to help other artists by publishing works that might not find a home in more traditional publishing venues.^[20]

Perceval Press is also the home of Viggo's many personal artistic projects in the area of fine arts, photography, poetry, song, and literature (see below).

Bibliography[link]

Viggo Mortensen at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.

Mortensen is also an author, with various books of poetry, photography, and painting published. His bibliography includes:

• Ten Last Night – (1993), his first collection of poetry.
• Recent Forgeries – (1998), ISBN, 5th Edition, documents Viggo's first solo exhibition and includes a CD with music and spoken-word poetry. Introduction by Dennis Hopper.
• Errant Vine – (2000), limited edition booklet of an exhibit at the Robert Mann Gallery.
• Hole in the Sun – (2002, ISBN), color and black & white photographs of a back yard swimming pool.
• SignLanguage – (2002 ISBN), a catalog from an exhibition of his works, combining photographs, paintings, and poetry into a multimedia diary of his time in New Zealand while filming The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Introduction by Kevin Power.
• Coincidence of Memory – (2002, ISBN) Third Edition. In this book, the artist combines photographs, paintings, and poems that cover his artistic output from 1978 to 2002.
• Mo Te Upoko-o-te-ika/For Wellington – (2003), ISBN, a book to accompany the joint exhibitions at Massey University and the Wellington City Gallery during the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
• 45301 – (2003), ISBN. Abstract images, fragments, and phrases from poems comprise this photography book. Many of the photographs were shot during travels to Morocco, Cuba, and the northern plains of the United States.
• Un hueco en el sol – (2003), a small booklet published to accompany the exhibition "Un hueco en el sol" at the Fototeca de Cuba in Havana. In Spanish.
• Miyelo – (2003, ISBN-X), a series of panoramic photographs of a Lakota Ghost Dance. It also tells about the events leading up to the massacre at Wounded Knee.
• Nye Falsknerier – (2003). Paintings and poems translated into Danish from Ten Last Night, Recent Forgeries, Coincidence of Memory.
• The Horse is Good – (2004), ISBN, a photography book, partly shot during his work on the film Hidalgo, about horses as partners, teachers, and fellow travelers. Images from Morocco, South Dakota, Montana, California, Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, Brazil, and Argentina. This book reflects Mortensen's fondness for horses. In fact, he bought Uraeus—the horse who played Brego, Aragorn's steed (Roheryn in the books) in The Lord of the Rings movies—as well as TJ, one of the horses who played Hidalgo. He also purchased the stallion that played Arwen's horse, a grey Andalusian stallion named Florian, and gave it to the stunt woman, Jane Abbott, who rode the horse in place of Liv Tyler.
• Linger – (2005). In this book, the artist combines black and white photographs and prose poems. Images from Spain (partly shot during his work on the film Alatriste), Morocco, Iceland, United States, Denmark...
• I Forget You For Ever – (2006). Texts and photographs.
• Skovbo – (2008). Collection of photographs, poems (in English, Spanish and Danish) and quotes. The book is dedicated to Howard Zinn and Dennis Kucinich and functions as a companion to the photo exhibit Skovbo at the Reykjavik Museum of Photography (2008).
• Sådanset – (2008). A small booklet published to accompany the exhibition Sådanset (October 18 – November 16, 2008) at the Palæfløjen in Roskilde (Denmark).
• Canciones de Invierno – Winter Songs – (2010). Collection of photographs and poems. Bilingual : in Spanish and English. It includes new texts (most of the poems and all the translations) and revised versions of texts previously published. They're accompanied by pictures of landscapes taken during the previous two winters.

Visual arts and discography[link]

Mortensen at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival

Mortensen is a painter and photographer. His paintings are frequently abstract and often contain fragments of his poetry in them. His paintings have been featured in galleries worldwide, and the paintings of the artist he portrayed in A Perfect Murder are all his own.^{[citation needed]}

Mortensen experiments with his poetry and music by mixing the two art forms. He has collaborated with guitarist Buckethead on several albums, mostly released on his own label (Perceval Press) or TDRS Music. Viggo was first introduced to Buckethead's work while working on sounds for an educational CD on Greek mythology. The finished product included a guitar part by Buckethead, which caught Viggo's ear and led him to initiate contact with the guitarist. The collaboration grew from there.^[21]

Viggo's discography includes:

• 1994: Don't Tell Me What to Do
• 1997: One Less Thing to Worry About
• 1998: Recent Forgeries
• 1999: The Other Parade
• 1999: One Man's Meat
• 1999: Live at Beyond Baroque
• 2003: Pandemoniumfromamerica
• 2004: Live at Beyond Baroque II
• 2004: Please Tomorrow
• 2004: This, That, and The Other
• 2005: Intelligence Failure
• 2006: 3 Fools April 4
• 2007: Time Waits for Everyone
• 2008: At All
• 2010: Canciones de Invierno
• 2011: Reunion

Mortensen is featured on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King soundtrack, singing "Aragorn's Coronation" (the name of the extended version of this song in the 3rd original sound track is "The Return of the King"), the words by Tolkien and the music composed by Mortensen. In the extended DVD edition of the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, he sings the song "The Lay of Beren and Lúthien". His poems are written in English, Danish, and Spanish.

Awards and honors[link]

Following his appearance in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in 2006 he was granted an honorary doctorate by his alma mater, St. Lawrence University.^[4][22]

On October 13, 2006, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Province and the City of León, Spain.

On April 16, 2010, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Dannebrog.^[23]

Personal life[link]

Mortensen has a son, Henry Blake Mortensen (born January 28, 1988)^[24], with ex-wife Exene Cervenka, singer in the punk band X.^[25] His son has a minor uncredited role in the extended version of The Two Towers; and in The Return of the King, he is the first orc killed by Aragorn as he leaves the ships during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields (according to Directors and Writers commentary on the DVD). He also has a brief appearance as the son of Viggo's character in Crimson Tide.

Mortensen holds dual American-Danish citizenship.^[26] He speaks fluent English, Danish and Spanish; he is also conversational in French and Italian, and understands Norwegian and Swedish. He has stated that he was raised speaking English and Spanish and at times feels more comfortable expressing himself in Spanish.^[27]

Mortensen is a hockey fan, particularly of the Montréal Canadiens. He wore a Montréal Canadiens t-shirt underneath his armour throughout the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.^[28] He is also a fan of association football and is a fan of Argentine star Diego Maradona, Héctor "Bambino" Veira, and both the Argentine and Danish national teams as well as Argentine club San Lorenzo de Almagro.^[29] In 1993, Mortensen went to Ireland during a break in shooting to watch Denmark play in a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification match. He is also a fan of the New York Mets, and in an interview promoting 2009 film The Road was seen wearing apparel indicating his support of the Australian Football League's Collingwood Magpies football club.^[30] While appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman, he held a sign supporting the New York Giants.

Mortensen was a good friend of Icelandic painter Georg Guðni Hauksson up until his death in 2011. Mortensen had long been an admirer of Hauksson's work as a landscape artist, and the two published books together as well as maintaining a close friendship.^[31][32]

Mortensen actively campaigned for Dennis Kucinich in the 2008 United States presidential election,^[33] and later endorsed Barack Obama for the presidency.^[34] He was also one of the signees of the "Toronto Declaration" protesting against spotlighting Tel-Aviv at the TIFF in 2009.^[35]

Mortensen has owned property in northern Sandpoint, Idaho, and spends time there when not filming movies.^[36]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Viggo Mortensen

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Viggo Mortensen

• Viggo Mortensen at the Internet Movie Database
• Viggo Mortensen at the Open Directory Project
• Viggo Mortensen at TV Tropes
• Perceval Press Viggo Mortensen's publishing house
• Charlie Rose A discussion about "A History of Violence"
• Men's Vogue profile on Viggo Mortensen
• Viggo Mortensen at BAFTA, A Life in Pictures event
• Viggo Mortensen reads poetry in Barcelona, at Canal-L

Evanna Patricia Lynch (born 16 August 1991) is an Irish actress who rose to prominence playing Luna Lovegood, a supporting role in the Harry Potter film series. Lynch was cast as Luna at the age of 14, having previously acted only in school plays. From 2007 to 2011, she appeared in four Harry Potter films and their tie-in video games.

Besides acting, Lynch has made and helped design fashion accessories and recorded an audiobook. She is a member of the Board of Advisors for the non-profit organization, the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA).

Early life and education[link]

Lynch was born in the Termonfeckin townland of County Louth, Ireland to Marguerite and Donal Lynch.^[1] One of a family of six,^[2] she has two sisters, Emily and Mairead, and one brother, Patrick.^[3] As a child, Lynch read the Harry Potter series and became a fan,^[4][5] sending letters to the author, J. K. Rowling.^[6] For two years from the age of 11, Lynch suffered from anorexia. During this time, Rowling sent her letters of encouragement; Lynch has described her as being "like a counsellor".^[7]

Lynch attended Cartown National School, a public primary school in Termonfeckin, until June 2004 and then moved to Our Lady's College, a Catholic school for girls, in Drogheda, County Louth,^[1][4] where her father was the deputy principal.^[8][9] In 2008, Lynch studied speculative fiction and drama at the Centre for the Talented Youth of Ireland, a summer school for gifted teens, in Glasnevin, Dublin.^[10][11] While on the Harry Potter set, she was tutored for at least three hours a day.^[12] From September 2010, Lynch attended the Institute of Education to repeat her Leaving Certificate.^[13]

Career[link]

Lynch at a HBP London signing in December 2009

In 2006, Lynch auditioned at a casting call in London for the role of Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.^[14][15] After auditioning against 15,000 other girls,^[14] and a subsequent screen test with lead actor Daniel Radcliffe, she was cast at the age of 14.^[12] Producers were impressed with her affinity for the character; David Heyman said "The others could play Luna; Evanna Lynch is Luna."^[16] Although uninvolved in the casting process, Rowling believed that Lynch was perfect for the role.^[17] She had never acted professionally before the Harry Potter series, her experience limited to school plays.^[18]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was Lynch's debut screen performance in 2007. Critics praised the performances of the supporting cast, often singling out Lynch for particular acclaim; A. O. Scott of The New York Times called her performance "spellbinding",^[19] and Jane Watkins of Country Life said she "[brought] an appealing sweetness to her character that's not so developed in the book".^[20]

Two years later, Lynch again starred as Luna in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe wrote that Lynch as Luna "combats the movie’s occasional sluggishness with a hilarious sluggishness of her own",^[21] and Michael Dwyer of The Irish Times called her the best Irish actress of 2009 for her work on the film.^[22] Her performance earned her Scream Award and Young Artist Award nominations,^[23][24] and she again reprised her role in the film's tie-in video game.^[25]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 was released in 2010. James Verniere of The Boston Herald commented that Luna "is still delightfully lunar,"^[26] while Simon Miraudo of Quickflix criticised the film commenting that "the delightful Evanna Lynch is brutally underutilised as the loopy Luna Lovegood".^[27] She again reprised her role in the film's tie-in video game.^[28]

The following year, Lynch again appeared as Luna in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times wrote that Lynch "continues to be all-that-and-a-radish-earring as the ever-wafting Luna Lovegood,"^[29] and Roger Moore of The Orlando Sentinel named her as "maybe" one of his "favorite players in the finale."^[30] She again reprised her role in the film's tie-in video game.^[31] She was invited for the recording sessions of Deathly Hallows Part 2's score, composed by Alexandre Desplat, in Abbey Road Studios, and Lynch attended the grand opening of Warner Bros. Studio Tour - The Making of Harry Potter on the 31 March 2012.^[32][33]

Other work[link]

Lynch has made and helped design a number of fashion accessories for the Harry Potter films,^{[2][9][34][35]} and modeled for Katrin Thomas and Ciaran Sweeney.^[36][37][38] She has also recorded an abridged audiobook version of Claire Keegan's short story Foster.^[39]

Her charity work includes participation with the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland, in which she launched their MS Readathon fundraiser in 2010.^[40] Lynch is also a member of the Board of Advisors for the non-profit organization, the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA). With the HPA, she has supported same-sex marriage in Maine,^[41] taken part in a webcast fundraiser,^[42] written an article about body image,^[43] and contributed to a fundraising book.^[44]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Evanna Lynch

• Evanna Lynch at the Internet Movie Database
• Evanna Lynch at AllRovi

Olga Kurylenko
Kurylenko during a Ford Ka presentation in Paris, October 2008
Born	Olha Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (1979-11-14) 14 November 1979 (age 32)[1] Berdyansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.75 m[2]
Hair colour	Dark brown
Eye colour	Green
Spouse	Cedric van Mol (2000–2004) Damian Gabrielle (2006–2007)

Olha Kostyantynivna Kurylenko (Ukrainian: Ольга Костянтинівна Куриленко; 14 November 1979), better known as Olga Kurylenko, is a French actress and model.^[3] She is perhaps best known as the Bond girl, Camille Montes, in the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. She also portrayed Nika Boronina in the movie adaptation of the video game Hitman. She became a French citizen in 2001.^[4]

Early life[link]

Olga Kurylenko was born in Berdyansk, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). Her father, Konstantin, is Ukrainian, and her mother, Marina Alyabusheva, is an art teacher of Russian and Belarusian descent, who was born in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.^[5][6][7]

When Kurylenko was three years old, her parents divorced, leaving her to be raised by her mother. Kurylenko rarely had contact with her father, meeting him for the first time when she was eight years old, and later again when she was 13.^[5][8]

Career[link]

Kurylenko was discovered by a female model scout while on vacation in Moscow at the age of 13.^[9] When she was 17, she signed a contract with the Paris-based Madison modeling agency.^[10] By the age of 18, she had appeared on the covers of Vogue and Elle.^[11] While working as a model in Paris, Kurylenko supported her mother in Ukraine.^[12]

She also appeared on the covers of Madame Figaro and Marie Claire.^[13]

She became the face of Triumph lingerie, Lejaby lingerie, Bebe, Clarins, and Helena Rubinstein,^[13] Furthermore, she modelled for Roberto Cavalli and Kenzo,^[14] and appeared in the Victoria's Secret catalog.^{[citation needed]}

Kurylenko's first acting appearance was in Seal's music video, 'Love's Divine' in 2003,^{[citation needed]} but her film career began in France during 2005. She received the certificate of excellence award at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival for her performance in L'Annulaire, and also starred in the Paris, je t'aime segment Quartier de la Madeleine opposite Elijah Wood. That same year, she was selected to be the face of Kenzo's new fragrance, Kenzo Amour.^{[citation needed]} She has appeared in all subsequent Kenzo Amour ads.^{[citation needed]} In 2007, Kurylenko starred in Hitman alongside Timothy Olyphant. She had a minor role in Max Payne as Natasha. She played Bond girl Camille Montes in the 2008 James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.^[15] In the film she plays the role of a Bolivian Secret Service agent named Camille, who teams up with James Bond to avenge the death of her parents.^[16]

Kurylenko was featured on the cover of the December 2008 issue of the US edition of Maxim^[17] and on the cover of the February 2009 issue of the Ukrainian edition of Maxim magazine.^[18]

The fact that she is the first Bond girl from a post-Soviet state received mixed reactions in Russia. The Saint Petersburg based Communist group KPLO has accused her of "moral and intellectual betrayal" in starring in a film about the "enemy of the Soviet people" (meaning James Bond)^[19][20] (Kurylenko considered that a PR move^[21]). In Ukraine the then-mayor of Berdyansk suggested naming a street after her in early 2008,^[22] and Kurylenko and her mother^[23] met Ukraine's First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko in President Yushchenko's family country house.^[10][11]

Kurylenko will appear in Terrence Malick's To the Wonder, shot in fall 2010 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Also starring Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem and Rachel McAdams, the film is currently in post-production.^{[citation needed]} She will also appear in Oblivion, an sci-fi project starring Tom Cruise and directed by Joseph Kosinski.^[24]

Personal life[link]

Kurylenko acquired French citizenship in 2001.^[4]

In 2000, Kurylenko married French fashion photographer Cedric van Mol,^[25][26] but the couple divorced four years later. In 2006, she married American mobile phone accessory entrepreneur Damian Gabrielle.^[9] They divorced in late 2007.^[27] She moved to London in 2009.^[21]

Kurylenko is a philanthropist noted for her work for the underprivileged, focusing on children in her native Ukraine.^[28]

Filmography[link]

References and notes[link]