Natalya Simonova

DATASTREAM
Actress: Izabella Scorupco
Character: Natalya Simonova
Movie: 'GoldenEye'
Date of Birth: 4th June 1970
Place of Birth: Bialystok, Poland
Trivia: She claims to have gone without food for four months, only drinking water, to get in shape for modeling.

PLEASED TO MEET YOU
Natalya Simonova first meets James Bond when the pair are tied up in the stolen Tiger with the helicopter's missiles set to destroy itself. By kicking and screaming she wakes 007 up from his slumber just in time for him to make good their escape.

"Do you destroy every vehicle you get into?"

CAUGHT IN THE ACT
Natalya and Bond share their first intimate moments in a Cuban beach house during a rest-bite before commencing the search for Trevelyan's GoldenEye control facility.

PROFILE
Natalya Simonova is a level two programmer at the Severnaya Space Weapons Control Centre before it is destroyed by a blast from one of the two GoldenEye satellites set-off by the Janus Crime Syndicate. She escapes as the only survivor, but is double-crossed by Boris and is taken captive by Ourumov and Onatopp.

Bond first meets Natalya when they are tied up in the stolen Tiger helicopter, but the pair escape only to be captured again by the Russian authorities. Forming an uneasy alliance in the beginning, Bond comes to her rescue in a tank after Ourumov disrupts the interrogation and flees in a car through the streets of St. Petersburg. After Bond calls Trevelyan's bluff on the train and shoots Ourumov, Natalya helps track down Boris and the second GoldenEye control facility whilst Bond makes good their escape. She accompanies Bond to Cuba in search of Trevelyan and proves a useful ally when she thwarts the computer system and causes the destruction of the second satellite.

BIOGRAPHY
Izabella Scorupco was born in the northern Polish town of Bialystok in 1970. Her parents divorced when she was a year old. She lived there with her mother, Magdelena who was a doctor. In 1978 they moved to a Stockholm suburb where she attended grade school there. She studied drama and music and, at 17, was discovered by a Swedish film director who cast her in the movie No One Can Love Like Us, which made her a local teenage idol. Izabella turned modeling in 1987 and has appeared in nearly every major European magazine. She became a successful model both in Sweden and throughout Europe, where she made good use of her fluency in four languages.

In 1989, Scorupco displayed another facet of her talents, launching her career as a pop singer with her first single, Substitute. The single and subsequent album, IZA, both went gold, and she followed them up with another hit single, Shame, Shame, which she recorded in 1991. Returning to acting in 1994, she immediately won the lead role in the Swedish film Petri Tears. Scorupco starred as a woman who lives her life as a man in the medieval drama, which was released in August 1995.

Her big break came when a Swedish casting director recommended her to be in the James Bond film GoldenEye. "This is politically correct. Bond doesn't fall in love with my character (Natalya) for her looks. It's her intelligence," she said. Scorupco had to forgo the usual glamour of a Bond girl in GoldenEye. Her character, Natalya Simonova, a computer programmer, does not have much of a chance to relish the good life with 007. Scorupco, though, saw the positive aspects. "I think it's a fantastic opportunity. To be in a Bond film, and at the same time to be able to do just a very human character."

On Christmas Day in December 1996 Izabella married hockey player Mariusz Czerkawski at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas. She gave birth to daughter Julia in September 1997, but later split with Czerkawski. She then moved to Los Angeles and is currently dating Jeffrey Raymond, the couple had a son, Jacob Martin Raymond, in July 2003.

Since her role in "GoldenEye", Scorupco turned down the lead roles in "L.A. Confidential" (1997) and "The Mask Of Zorro" (1998) directed by Martin Campbell to take a break from her career, but she hooked up with the Bond helmer for "Vertical Limit" in 2000.