Age: 41
female
Born on February 14, 1985, in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Russia, Natalya Rudakova is best known for her "Cinderella story" discovery and her breakout role as Valentina in the action thriller Transporter 3 (2008). Growing up in post-Soviet Russia, she moved to New York City with her mother at age 17, where she began working as a hairdresser. Her life changed when she was spotted by legendary filmmaker Luc Besson while crossing a street; impressed by her striking red hair, blue eyes, and freckles, Besson invited her to audition and paid for her acting lessons. Following her debut alongside Jason Statham, Rudakova appeared in several independent films, including The One (2011), Waiting for a Train (2014), and the crime thriller DieRy (2020). While she maintains a private life, she has continued to balance occasional acting roles with her interests in fashion and photography, remaining a recognizable figure for her unique look and sudden rise to Hollywood fame.
In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Show Tunes of the Month record club. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. In a respectable house. The house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess: clutter on every surface, IMPEACHMENT: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeout for dinner. And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not): The doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job—helping a famous rock star dry out. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in. Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll (not to mention group therapy). Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.
