Ukranian-born model and actress Olga Kurylenko speaks to View London’s Matthew Turner about plummeting from a staircase, acting like a vampire and her new film, The Serpent.

How did you get involved with The Serpent?
Olga Kurylenko (OK): Eric (the director) was looking for a girl… well, I don't want to say…

The script calls for an incredibly beautiful girl, right?
OK: Yeah and he tried a few models, I guess and it didn't work out and then he met me and it was good.

Your character is essentially the bait, isn't she?
OK: Yes, but mainly I'm the victim because she's used by Plender. She has no papers, so basically she's illegal in France and you can imagine that he probably took her passport and makes her do all these things because she has nowhere to go.

But that's what attracted me to the part, you know, she's not a mean person but she does bad things. It's like a contradiction – she's a victim but because of her there are many men whose lives get destroyed.

I assume you weren't shooting for that many days? You're only in a small handful of scenes compared to the other two.
OK: Well, I did ten days. You know they cut a lot of scenes out.

Were there any specific scenes that got cut that you really liked?
OK: Yeah, in the scene where I drug Vincent, there was much more dialogue, but I guess it was too long so they shrank it. And also with Chandras, the lawyer in the beginning, now we only see what she does with him on the video camera, but in the beginning there was more of a seduction, you know, I invited him to my house and so on.

My favourite part of The Serpent was the unusual staircase. How was it filming those scenes?
OK: Oh my God, that was terrifying. I was freaking out. I'm scared of heights – I can't even go out on my balcony and I'm on the fifth floor. So can you imagine, for me, falling down? It was crazy.

You did the whole falling scene yourself?
OK: I did the whole thing myself yes. There was a stunt girl but I did the whole thing myself – I don't even know why they invited the stunt girl. I wore a harness and I was attached by cables and there was a guy who controlled it all. There was a mat on the floor and it was about ten metres high. So first they dropped me and it was like real speed, you know, real falling and then they slowed it down at the end.

But the first moments were real and I was white [with fear]. And Eric played a joke on me, because during the shooting, I was really, really scared and he saw that. And at the end, at some point, he said to the guy, Okay, drop her. And I got so scared, I screamed like this, Aaaaaah! and he said, Okay, we got it, that's the shot.

We recently saw your vampire movie, the short film you made with Elijah Wood in Paris, Je T'aime. How was that?
OK: It was amazing, I loved it. It's the only part I've played where I don't play a human being. The director told me to think of my character as an animal and that was good advice, because it made me change my way of thinking. It's a pity it was a short and that it couldn't be developed a bit more. I'd love to do a full-length vampire movie, but a classic one, you know, not a stupid one. Like a fairy tale, with beautiful costumes.

If you'd been asked, would you have been one of Keanu's vampire brides in Coppola's Dracula?
OK: Of course I would! Yes! It's a beautiful movie.

What have you got coming up next?
OK: Well, after The Serpent I did an American film called Hitman – it's based on a videogame and it's coming out in October or November. It's also my first American film.