Izabella Scorupco talks about her role in `GoldenEye`, the Bond Girl legacy, and her career

ActionAdventure have interviewed Izabella Scorupco about her career, how her role as Natalya Simonova in "GoldenEye" has shaped her future roles, and the legacy of being a "Bond Girl".

When Martin Campbell reinvented the James Bond series with Goldeneye, he discovered two little known beauties to play the Bond girls. Famke Janssen went on to become Jean Grey in X-men among many other films. But the other, Izabella Scorupco seemed to disappear. If you look at her filmography, you`ll find a few foreign film credits, but Vertical Limit, also directed by Campbell, marks her first major movie appearance in five years.



In person, Scorupco is shy despite her jaw-dropping beauty that renders journalists helpless to her charm. She has a bit of an accent, but not the Russian one from Goldeneye nor the American one from Vertical Limit. It must be a mix of Polish and Swedish, the languages of the two countries in which she grew up. You may detect traces of European English here, but she`s totally fluent.

Did Goldeneye help you get this role? Well, I definitely think without working on Goldeneye I wouldn`t have been able to do this movie, because I wouldn`t have known Martin Campbell. It`s such a big compliment to be able to work with the same director twice, because then you know it`s somebody that trusts you and believes in you and knows that this is something that you would be able to do.

Why did it take you five years to do another American movie? Because I became a mother. I had a child almost right after Goldeneye and I wanted to have a lot of time off with her, but I ended up doing a movie in Poland when she was five months, against my rules, because I really didn`t want to be this actress mother thing. But it works out really well. I`m just so lucky to be on a level where you can have your child with you. It`s not something a lot of women can do, be able to work the way I do with a nanny and travel. So, that`s about it, and then I did a movie in Sweden and I did that for three months. Right after that movie, I did a movie in New Zealand and that`s Vertical Limit, so that`s all the years.

Are you going to be making more American movies now? I really hope so. I really hope that I`m going to be able to work and work and work, to be a part of the whole thing. It`s just such a privilege to be able to work, especially when you`re in this city. You see all these people working in restaurants being actors. It`s amazing actually. Why am I apart of this huge production? What`s the joke? "What are you doing?" "I`m an actress?" "Oh, what restaurant?" I love that one.

What was your experience training with the professional climbers? I didn`t really have the same time of preparation because I was working on the Swedish movie and I had four days to pack and go for the 36 hour trip. I ended up in New Zealand just exhausted and the day after just all over the place climbing. I didn`t have a chance to think about it. I didn`t have a chance to realize what this was going to be like, that it was going to be madness. I`m not very crazy about action movies. I never watch action movies myself. To do an action movie you always have to do it with a really good director that really cares about the actors and really cares about the drama. Like, our film I think could take place anywhere, the whole story of family tragedy. What I liked was that she was a woman, she was with this loser boyfriend and she just feels like "I have nothing to lose. I have to do this. It`s extremely dangerous but I have to do this because I don`t have anything else to go on." The physical part I just didn`t care about because it`s just going to happen, also because of the preparation. We were so prepared. The most important thing for us was not actually the physical part, it was trusting the equipment, trusting the harnesses and knowing that if I`m going to just hang down and it`s going to be 400 feet, I`m not going to die because they know what they`re doing. They can`t afford to kill me, especially not if I`m with Chris.

What pressures do you feel being a woman in the traditionally male genre of action movies? I don`t really think about it ever, because I don`t ever want it to become an action movie. I just want this character in this specific scene to be what I think it should be. I never think, "Okay, I`m in an action movie so I have to scream, using scream #4." It`s always just about what this whole thing is about and it`s always about trying to be as human as possible. That`s what I wanted when I did Goldeneye. I thought, "I`m never going to think about myself as a Bond girl. I`m never going to think of myself being in a Bond movie." I just wanted to pretend it was one of the biggest dramas I`ve done in my whole life.

When you see Famke in X-men do you ever think, "That could have been me"? Unfortunately, I haven`t seen X-men.

But seeing that it`s a huge superhero phenomenon. Well, Famke and I are so different looking and different, we`re just two different types of people, so I don`t think I could do a part as good as she does if she`s good in a part, because that`s her strength.

What were the offers like after Goldeneye? I thought it was just amazing to get offers, because you just get offers. They want you because you were part of a big blockbuster.

Famke has said she got a lot of B-movie, erotica type offers that she didn`t like. Is that just the difference between the good Bond girl and the Evil one? And she was the glamorous one.

You were both glamorous. No, I was just not. I was the most boring ever.

If you are boring and plain, let me marry a slob. I thought my Bond girl was just really human, a very human being in a bond movie because she was this Russian computer nerd. I never looked really smashing. I had one outfit throughout the whole movie. Did I ever wear high heels in the movie? I didn`t.

That`s a stereotype. You were still glamorous. I know what you mean, but I`ve never thought of myself that way, really. I`ve never seen that as a problem.

Well now you know that your fans didn`t see any difference in glamour. Oh, good. Because I wanted to have her hats all the time.

So how have the offers changed? I have to tell you honestly speaking, because after the Bond movie instead of doing the thing that I now think I should of done, just be here and enjoy it, I totally closed off workshop totally. I was confused and I think I was a little bit lost. I was going through so many weird things in my life and I couldn`t really do something good about the whole thing. So, that`s what happened but I think I had offers that I really thought, "Wow, it`s amazing that they actually want me to do this part," but I was more scared about doing it, not really knowing if I would be able to do it as good as they think I am.

So they weren`t B movies, direct to video stuff? No, I never got that. I never did. Honestly, I think I got maybe two action movie offers that I turned down because I just didn`t want to do action. I didn`t want to do anything. I was so stupid. I was such a loser. I was a big loser, I really was. Instead of just enjoying it I couldn`t. Then, I got married, I got divorced and now I`m here.

So you`re staying now? I`m based in Sweden but I want to move over here now because I feel so comfortable here. I`m going to go to Sweden for Christmas and then I`m going to come back here because I just love being here.


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