Oblivion star Olga Kurylenko knows a thing or two about getting into action onscreen. The former Bond girl met Movie Fanatic to talk about her new Tom Cruise movie and how the action scenes for Oblivion were intense, but pale in comparison to her experience with Daniel Craig on Quantum of Solace.
“Actually, Oblivion is not the most intense physically. If you compare Julia (her character in Oblivion) to Camille in Quantum of Solace, Julia is a much more romantic figure while Camille was actually competing with Bond, tried to kill him -- tried to fight him,” Kurylenko said proudly.
“She was pretty much the equivalent of James Bond in a female character which was also very different and she didn’t have any romantic story with Bond which was different from Bond girls but also very different from Julia.”
As seen in the Oblivion trailer, Kurylenko’s Julia literally falls from space and into Cruise’s character Jack’s life. The mystery surrounding her appearance on a desolated Earth cues the suspense for director Joseph Kosinski. The world was attacked and although humans won the war, the planet was left in such a post-nuclear bomb state that all humans must live above the planet. Jack is on Earth making sure the resources of the planet continue to fuel life high above.
Even if fighting James Bond was a bit more intense, don't get Kurylenko wrong, the action in Oblivion was still intense. "For me physically, the most intense character and the most I’ve ever been involved in action is Bond but this is probably the second," she said.
"I don’t manipulate the action. I’m sitting either next to Tom or behind Tom. I was behind him on the motorcycle or next to him on the bubbleship! At one point I do pick up a machine gun and shoot and the Bond experience served me there because I did come prepared. They asked me how I knew how to do it and I said, 'I went to the Bond school!'"
Oblivion and Quantum of Solace don't just share a penchant for action, but feature two of the biggest movie stars in the world... Cruise and Daniel Craig, respectively. "A couple of things they have in common is that they’re both action heroes. They are involved a lot in action films and they both do their stunts by themselves. They train a lot and physically work a lot. Both are very hard-working," Kurylenko said.
"Tom is fascinating. I don’t know what that man doesn’t know how to do. He flies a plane, a helicopter, everything. It’s very inspiring to work with people like that but don’t try to outshine them in the action scenes. It’s incredible. I think there was a stunt guy trying to compete in running with Tom Cruise and Tom was running faster than him! Stunt guys are tough; the toughest, strongest and fastest and Tom is still stronger and faster. He’s one of a kind. I’d never seen that before."
Kurylenko also reported that not only is Cruise a top-notch movie action hero on many levels, but a generous scene partner as an actor. "It was an unexpected thing to see how much he gives. He’s a big star and wonderful actor. We know that but only his partners -- other actors -- know how much he gives," she added. "I’ve never seen him sit in his trailer. He’d always be there, even if the camera was on me and he was far away from my eye-line, he would prefer to be there."
We wondered about the soon-to-be iconic bubbleship in the film. With the cockpit that Kurylenko and Cruise sat at able to turn in a 360-degree manner, did she ever get a little sick? "I threw up in the beginning of the film when I came out of the (sleep) pod, so that was done," she said and laughed.
"But, no, I don’t get sick from motion. I can be on a boat and everything but I don’t like it psychologically being thrown around. I don’t enjoy roller coasters and that was like being in a washing machine and a roller coaster at the same time because it was spinning the whole time. When I have a choice, I don’t like going into washing machines!"