BERDYANSK, Ukraine - Olga Kurylenko, the supermodel and actress who stars in the new James Bond movie, began her acting career playing Santa Claus' young wife in a school play in her provincial Ukrainian hometown.

Teachers remember Kurylenko, 28, the long-legged and wide-eyed brunette who charms agent 007 in "Quantum of Solace," for the determination, drive and luck that turned the humble Soviet child into a Hollywood star.

"She was such a talented girl," said her home town piano teacher, Halina Kulchitska. "Even if she hadn't become James Bond's girl, she still would have gotten some big role."

Kurylenko grew up in this quiet city of 140,000 on the Azov Sea in southeastern Ukraine, where monuments made from giant metal anchors dot the city centre and middle-aged men spend their free time fishing along the main embankment, a cigarette in their mouth.

Raised by her mother, Marina, a school art teacher, and her grandmother, a doctor, Kurylenko was a typical Soviet child, wearing a dark brown-and-white uniform to school, two huge white bows in her hair.

The family lived in a three-room apartment not far from the city centre. That was a luxury by Soviet standards, when many lived in communal flats, sharing the kitchen and bathroom with several families.

Today her crumbling five-storey apartment building, where carpets, comforters and underpants are hung to dry in the courtyard and children play on rusting slides, is testimony to how far she's travelled since then.

In Moscow on Monday to promote the film, Kurylenko said she never imagined she'd be selected as a Bond girl.

"I still don't believe it and don't think that I realize it yet," she told Associated Press Television News.

The movie, in which Bond and Kurylenko's character, Camille, try to save Bolivia's water supplies, was shot mainly in Italy, Spain and Mexico.

"Camille is quite a strong woman, very independent. She carries a wound which comes from her childhood," said Kurylenko, clad in a black jacket with her hair down.

"There is something very terrible that happened to her when she was a little girl and everything she focuses on is revenge connected to this event and that is her motivation in the movie."

Kurylenko's star began to rise at age 16 when she was spotted by a model scout in the subway in Moscow, where she was on vacation. She moved to Paris to work in a modeling agency and then launched a career as an actress.

Kurylenko's drama teacher, Ina Kaminska, 70, said her student simply got lucky.

"It's all great, just great, we are all very happy -- she became a Cinderella -- but nevertheless when she was in my class I didn't see that kind of future for her," Kaminska said. "I think she was spotted by chance."

Kurylenko got one of her first main roles after she joined the school drama class in the seventh grade, playing Beautiful Spring, the young wife of Grandfather Frost, the local equivalent of Santa Claus.

After she was cast for the new Bond movie, Kurylenko's school was besieged by journalists and abuzz with all things related to her. Teachers even put her photos as a model and actress prominently on display at the school, but the stand was later taken down after parents of younger students complained the pictures were too revealing.

Artur Shevchenko, 16, who goes to the same school as Kuylenko did, said he has a crush on the actress.

"I've seen her photos online -- they are not bad at all," he said with a laugh. "The girl is quite sexy -- I think she will be OK for Bond. I think of all his girlfriends she will be one of the best. ... As for me, I wouldn't mind being Bond myself."