They come from very different backgrounds. One is the daughter of a Gravesend welder while the other was brought up by a single mum in a bleak, impoverished Ukrainian backwater.

But Gemma Arterton and Olga Kurylenko have both been plucked from obscurity for roles in the new Bond film, Quantum of Solace.

Just nine months ago, Gemma, who is 22 this week, was working in a Covent Garden beauty shop.

“We had a Bond themed night a year ago and I had dress as a Bond girl and sell make-up,” says the actress who plays MI6 operative Agent Fields. “And now here I am, a real Bond girl!

“Now they want to make a make-up range called Bond which they want me to design. How great is that?”

But for 28-year-old Olga who plays Camille, a woman bent on vengeance, the transition is far more extreme.

For a start, she had never seen a Bond film…

In Berdyansk, where her mother Marina scrimped to pay for food after her husband abandoned his family, there wasn’t much money for little luxuries like a trip to the cinema.

“I could never imagine being where I am today when I was a little girl,” she says. “Even some days I think, ‘Is this really my life?’”

“When I was growing up it was difficult. My mum wasn’t making much money and we just managed to survive.

“Out of what little we had, she paid for lessons at music school. We had to sacrifice a lot.” Now Olga sends money home to repay the debt.

“My mother has the most wonderful faith in me and all I am today is because of her,” she says.

“Now I can support her. I buy her presents and help her a lot.”

In Soviet times, Bond was a decadent symbol of western capitalism and so was never shown.

Then, with the collapse of communism, Olga and her mum were too poor to go the cinema. In her almost flawless English, Olga says: “I didn’t see many movies when I was growing up - but I have caught up recently.” Olga was 13 when she was spotted by a model agency and within three years she had moved to Paris and was appearing on the covers of Elle and Marie Claire.

Her mum is still in Berdyansk and Olga goes back as often as she can.

She says: “In my town they are very, very proud. My friends and teachers think it is really incredible.”

Olga is now focused completely on her career and a love-life is off the agenda for now.

“I don’t want a boyfriend,” she says matter-of-factly. “I don’t have time for it.

I am going abroad for six months, filming in Europe and Panama.

Who can cope with that? I think it is easier this way. I want to be totally involved in the movie.

“I get up, go to the set, work, go back and go to bed. It has been like that for weeks. But that is how I want it. I love it.”

Meanwhile, six weeks into filming the 22nd Bond movie, Gemma can barely believe how far she has come in such a short time.

Her boyfriend John, a 27-year-old animatronic modeller who she lives with in North London, is determined to keep her feet on the ground.

“He is very proud, but he doesn’t go on about it,” Gemma says. “I don’t think he will ever think differently of me. It is quite daunting for the two of us, but it is brilliant at the same time.

“After filming I love going home to my boyfriend and my kitten and just watching TV.”

Gemma, who comes to a sticky end in the film, went to Gravesend Grammar School for Girls, leaving at 16 to go to a performing arts college and then RADA.

But her career took off last April when she won the part of head girl Kelly in the St Trinian’s movie.

“It has actually been quite freakish - I haven’t had time to get my head round it.

“My mum is a cleaner and my dad is a welder. Very down to earth people who’ll keep me grounded.”

In St Trinian’s, womaniser Russell Brand as spiv Flash Harry tries to pull her. In Quantum Of Solace, she succumbs to Daniel Craig. Who does she prefer?

She says diplomatically: “How can you compare Daniel Craig to Russell Brand?

“They are both very different. James Bond is the epitome of cool while Russell was not interested in me at all - he was very well behaved!”

Quantum Of Solace is released on November 7.

YOU ONLY LOVE TWICE

James Bond has fallen in love with only two Bond Girls - Diana Rigg and Tracy di Vicenzo - and neither lived to tell the tale.

Source: The Mirror