Uma Thurman, the sword- wielding star of Quentin Tarantino's new film Kill Bill, made a surprise appearance on Wednesday night at the Hong Kong premiere. Well, not the real Uma Thurman. It was actually Tatiana Hramov, a 21-year-old model from Frankfurt.
If any attendees at the opening were fooled into thinking Hong Kong had persuaded Thurman herself to grace the premiere, however, they should be forgiven. Tall, blonde and stunning, Hramov certainly looks the part. Nor is this the first time she has assumed Thurman's likeness, having also impersonated her for the cover of a German magazine earlier this year. Close up the resemblance is less obvious.
Hramov says it's 'cool' playing Thurman, but has no plans to go into acting herself. The role is just one entry in the young model's quickly-growing portfolio. Immediately after the Kill Bill premiere Hramov jetted to Milan, for a shoot with prominent Italian photographer Maurizio Montani. She had only an hour and a half to get to the airport. In an interview before the premiere, it is clear Hramov isn't bothered by the rush. 'They want me at the premiere from 8pm until 10pm, and my flight to Milan leaves at 11.30pm. It happens this way all the time, but it's okay. I'm a pretty easy-going person,' she says.
The frantic pace began shortly after her arrival here two months ago. Seizing an opportunity offered by a modelling scout in Frankfurt to come to Hong Kong, Hramov quickly landed jobs on the mainland and in Taipei, where she worked alongside tennis star Anna Kournikova on a shoot for Omega watches. Hramov's 'most exciting' job was for MTV Europe in Frankfurt, where she featured in a music video for the American punk band Blink 182. 'I was backstage with stars, eating dinner with stars,' she says. 'It was more fun than doing a magazine cover.''
Suggestions for Hramov to become a model started to pour in when she was about 15. She didn't take them seriously until she was 18, when a model she met at a bar in Frankfurt persuaded her to get in contact with agencies in Germany.
Hramov quickly embraced the international lifestyle that followed, she says, because it felt like a continuation of her upbringing. Her mother is German and her father is Norwegian, but she was born in Moscow. She lived there until she was 16, when her family moved to Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt, where they still live.