Cambodia's star new Bond girl

The French-Khmer film-star Bérénice Marlohe, who stars as a Bond girl in the forthcoming 007 adventure, has revealed her experience filming was both a “tense and unique” experience.

Paris-born Marlohe, who plays the enigmatic Severine in the latest film in the Bond franchise, said she “can’t wait’’ to see what fans think of Skyfall despite admitting she had an anxious time shooting the movie.

The film, which was shot in France and stars Daniel Craig as the title character, will be released in autumn.

Although the actress is half-French, she is widely admired in Cambodia, where her father is from, for breaking into the Hollywood movie industry and representing the country. 

In an interview with Italian Vogue, she credited her Chinese-Cambodian father, who works as a doctor, and French mother, a teacher, for her warm but tenacious personality.

She said: “My mother is French, my father is Cambodian-Chinese. From my mum I got the friendliness and the ability not to depend on anyone. From my dad? The stubbornness, the will never to give up, and my facial features.” 

Ever since she was a child, Marlohe wanted to be known worldwide as an accomplished actress and pianist. She spent 10 years studying at the Conservatoire de Paris, a college of music and dance, to reach her goal.  

But the actress admitted that she was not famous before she was cast in the franchise after finding the casting director’s email and sending over a film reel. 

Now, she says, she has garnered world-wide fame as a “sexy’’ and “attractive’’ actress despite  being relatively unheard of in her French homeland until now.

“During filming in France, I found that they don’t pay more attention to me because they don’t see me the same way as other French actresses," she said. “Maybe I don’t perform so well. If that is why I am not so famous there, then I can’t complain about it."

Marlohe said that her dream is to win the Best Supporting Actress award at the Academy Awards for her perfomance in Skyfall. She hopes that her co-star, Javier Bardem, who plays the villain Raoul Silva, will be crowned Best Supporting Actor, she added. 

When asked by Italian Vogue about her opinion on previous Bond girls, she said: “I like the bad ones, the ‘bad girls’ – the ones that wanted to kill 007.”

"The best one? Famke Janssen. She was European as well, from Holland. Merciless, lethal, the best one for acting in my opinion. 

“The most beautiful ever? Kim Basinger, although Ursula Andress in Dr No can’t be forgotten easily.”