You may not have heard Sofia Boutella’s name, but you’ve most definitely seen her on screen. The leggy French-Algerian actress, who was formerly a dancer, starred in Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond. Sofia also stars opposite Tom Cruise as villainess Ahmanet in the reboot of The Mummy, which opens here on June 8.
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Here’s why the gorgeous 35-year-old star is set to become one of Hollywood’s new It girls.
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Text: Joanne Soh, The New Paper, Additional Reporting by Lisa Twang
Sofia’s performances in Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek: Beyond were so powerful, that film industry site IMDB named her one of the Top 10 Breakout Stars of 2016. Sofia appears on the list along with Oscar winner Brie Larson, Adam Driver, and Evan Rachel Wood.
Sofia, who was raised in France, had been Madonna’s back-up dancer since 2006 and credits her positive work attitude to the US pop icon. Madonna taught her “a lot of discipline and hard work”, Boutella told New York Daily News.
Her decision to give up dancing to pursue acting surprised Madonna, she told The Hollywood Reporter, but the latter encouraged her to follow her dreams.
Sofia’s big break came two years after her last dance with Madonna at the 2012 Super Bowl. She knocked it out of the park with her performance as the razor-legged assassin Gazelle in 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service. Her athleticism as a dancer made her execute her fight choreography scenes with ease, impressing many.
Sofia knows the value of hard work, especially since she was a former refugee who came to France with her family from Algeria. “I hadn’t worked for two years and then, boom! I got Kingsman,” she said. “I consider myself very lucky and I’m very grateful, especially knowing that I come from a country where kids don’t have the opportunity to do what I do because of a bloody civil war. I left. Very few have the chance to leave, and here I am doing all this stuff.”
Sofia once again stole the show as Jaylah, the alien warrior with the kabuki make-up in Star Trek Beyond. Co-star and scriptwriter Simon Pegg said the inspiration for the new character came from US actress Jennifer Lawrence’s Oscar-nominated role in the indie drama Winter Bone (2010).
Sofia described Jaylah as a tough survivor, much like Captain Kirk (Chris Pine). She single-handedly helps Kirk and his crew escape the clutches of the evil Krall (Idris Elba) who has a personal vendetta against the Enterprise.
Sofia is set to helm another Hollywood blockbuster, starring in the upcoming reboot of The Mummy alongside Tom Cruise, where she also had to endure long make-up sessions to play the titular Egyptian monster. Her character, Ahmanet, is a spurned Egyptian princess who comes back to life in modern times to exact revenge. It’s reported that Tom himself requested for Sofia to be cast in the film. Sofia told Time magazine: “(Tom) taught me a lot, on and off set. I feel very lucky.”