While filming Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Tom Cruise asked Pom Klementieff to redo her English lines in her native French. “I translated my lines from English to French and even though it was a very bad translation, it lent authenticity to my character,” Pom told IANS. “Having said that, I prayed that no French person should watch this scene and judge my native language skills.”
Pom Klementieff was born to a Korean mother and a Russian French father
Pom Klementieff was born on 3rd May 1986 to a Korean mother, Yu Ri Park, and a Russian-French father, Alexis Klementieff. Alexis met Yuri during a visit to Seoul in the 1980s.
“My mother is completely Korean, and my father is Russian and French,” Pom told KoreAm. “They met on the street in Seoul, and he fell in love with her. He followed her around like a weirdo. He was obsessed with Asia. You know, yellow fever?”
Pom was born in Quebec City, Quebec, where her father worked as a consul for the French government. “I was born in Quebec under diplomatic passport. Was never able to get the Canadian passport because of that,” Pom tweeted in May 2017. She stated that she wanted double nationality, but the circumstances of her birth prevented her from acquiring Canadian citizenship.
Park named her daughter Pom to refer to both a tiger and spring. Pom (Pomme) also means apple in French.
Pom’s family relocated to Japan a year after her birth. Alexis’ job forced the family to move again, this time to the Ivory Coast. Eventually, they settled in France. Pom told Anthem Magazine that she considers herself a global citizen:
“When I was a little girl, I got used to meeting people knowing I would leave them by the end of the year and that gave me a kind of a gypsy soul. Home is anywhere for me now—even on set. I definitely consider myself a global citizen! I was raised with the idea that being able to adapt yourself to new surroundings is the key to knowledge.”
Pom was five when Alexis died of cancer. Park had schizophrenia, so she couldn’t care for her children. Consequently, Pom was raised by her paternal aunt and uncle. Pom’s uncle, who she considered a second father, died on her 18th birthday. “When he died, I first went to law school to please my aunt, but it just wasn’t for me,” Pom said.
Tragedy struck again during Pom’s 25th birthday: her older brother, Namou, committed suicide. “Now I’m afraid of somebody else dying on my next birthday,” Pom said. “But it’s life, you know? Moving here, it was tough and complicated. But I wanted to move. I wanted to be free of drama, and have a new story to tell.”