Fiercely independent ... Olga Kurylenko in Sydney. Picture: Chris Pavlich. Source: News Corp Australia

But the career trajectories of some of her immediate predecessors - Golden Globe nominee Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl), for instance - have gone some way to mitigating those concerns.

“The danger is that you can get stuck,’’ says the Ukrainian actress, who was in Sydney for the world premiere of her latest film, The Water Diviner, directed by and starring Russell Crowe.

In the years immediately following Quantum of Solace (2008), Kurylenko’s career management strategy was simple.

“I just said no. After Bond, I got so many parts offered to me that were similar.”

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Well matched ... Kurylenko with Crowe in Cannes. Picture: Getty Source: Supplied

Playing a long game, Kurylenko moved between art house fare (Terrence Malick’s To The Wonder, with Ben Affleck), action blockbusters (the Tom Cruise sci-fi fantasy Oblivion) and television (popular 50s Miami mob series Magic City).

Her appearance opposite former 007 Pierce Brosnan this year in spy thriller The November Man is perhaps a sign of just how confident she is that she has successfully managed to avoid the pigeonhole trap.

The Water Diviner, about a father who travels to Gallipoli to find the bodies of his three soldier sons, seemed like a logical next step.

“It’s my first real period drama,’ she says.

The 35-year-old actress, who speaks four languages (Russian, English, French and Spanish), decided to learn Turkish for the film in which she plays a widow whose husband died on the same battlefield as Crowe’s sons.

Breakthrough role ... with Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace. Picture: Supplied Source: News Limited

Although she only had time to master the basics, she was competent enough to improvise a line or two with Salih Kalyon, the Turkish actor who plays her father in the film.

”If acting doesn’t work out, I could always get a job as a linguist,’’ she jokes.

One of The Water Diviner’s biggest drawcards, says Kurylenko, was the opportunity to work with Crowe.

“It was a joy to work with him. I just remember waking up every morning impatiently waiting to get to set to work on the next scene. And that’s thanks to Russell. I had so much to learn from him. He’s a genius actor.”

Her character’s feisty independence also appealed.

On set ... with Crowe in The Water Diviner. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

An interview with Kurylenko comes with the advance stipulation that while she is happy to discuss her background - after being discovered at a Moscow train station, Kurylenko moved to Paris at the age of 16 to work as a model - politics and personal questions are out of bounds.

It seems appropriate, then, to ask whether she relates the challenges Ayshe faces to those of her own single mother who raised Kurylenko alone after her husband left when her daughter was 8 years old.

“I hadn’t thought about my mother, but yes, she chose not to remarry for exactly the same reasons as Ayshe.”

But Kurylenko says it was the similarities between Ayshe and herself that initially struck her.

“I really identified with Ayshe. I don’t have children but my thing has always been that I want to be independent. That I am not going to go for facility.

Action replay .. with Tom Cruise in Oblivion. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

“I want to have my freedom and that’s why I am in this situation that I am in today. “

It’s not possible to clarify exactly what Kurylenko means by this comment since at this point the publicist swiftly intervenes to drive home the message that there are to be no questions of a personal matter.

One can safely assume, then, that the “situation” Kurylenko is referring to is a personal one.

Presumably, it’s her recent breakup with Magic City co-star Danny Huston (John’s son, Angelica’s half-brother)- possibly a touchy subject for the actress who has been divorced twice.

But if Kurylenko’s personal life is somewhat shaky, her career is looking remarkably solid.

After The Water Diviner, Kurylenko travelled to South Africa to shoot the action thriller Momentum, in which she stars opposite James Purefoy and Morgan Freeman.

On screen chemistry ... Crowe and Kurylenko at the Melbourne premiere of their film. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis Source: News Corp Australia

“I’ve never been there in winter before. It hailed. The mountains were covered in snow. It was dark all the time. It was just miserable.”

It would take more than a bit of bad weather to rattle someone with as much backbone as Kurylenko, whose in-at-the-deep-end adolescence prepared her well for the trials and tribulations of an actor’s gypsy lifetime.

“It’s hard enough, anyway, to move away at 16. But I didn’t grow up in a capital. I came from a small town. I was a bit naïve. I had never even flown on a plane before. So it was a big shock. The world just hit me in the face. I had to learn fast,’’ she recalls.

Quick learner .. Kurylenko and co-star Jacqueline McKenzie in Sydney. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

“Looking back, I think I managed it pretty well. I don’t know how I did it. I think I was incredibly sensible for someone so young. I was so careful ... someone else would say boring. But I am glad I didn’t go crazy. I think the fact that I achieved the things I did was because I was so like a little soldier.”

The Water Diviner opens on Boxing Day.