Three minutes into my interview with Pom Klementieff, I’m apologizing — but not for myself. “On behalf of Canada, I am so sorry,” I say, unsure well-nigh how to respond to her tale of rejection. The Guardians of the Galaxy star laughs, unmistakably not harbouring any grudges.

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Klementieff was born in Quebec City under a diplomatic passport. “And I lived there for well-nigh a year considering my dad was a French diplomat,” she explains. She moved virtually a lot as a kid, spending her diaper between here, Japan and the Ivory Coast surpassing her French-Russian father and Korean mother settled in France. As a teen, Klementieff thought “it would be cool” to have a Canadian passport. However, she was denied one due to her father’s diplomatic status at the time of her birth. To make matters worse, years later, while on a printing tour for one of her many Marvel movies, she wasn’t unliable into Toronto considering of visa issues. Then I apologize, and then she laughs. “I love Canada, but you’ve told me ‘no’ a lot,” she says. “I’m kinda traumatized.” [Laughs] Not that I could tell.

Dress, price upon request, Christopher Kane. Earrings, $4,100, and ring, $5,450, Cartier. Photography by Royal Gilbert

Klementieff asks if she can turn her camera off during our video chat. “I don’t want to see my squatter — it annoys me,” she laughs. I get only a unenduring glimpse of the two-face in her New York City home in a unstudied cotton striped tee with her blond hair messily pulled back. And while it would be easy to undeniability her out on the irony of her statement — she’s starring in two of summer’s biggest blockbusters: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, out now, and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, premiering in July — coming from Klementieff, who is so sincere and full of sunshine, it doesn’t seem right.

Dress, $15,500, and shoes, $990, Loewe. Earrings, $295, and ring, $420, Shaun Leane. Photography by Royal Gilbert

In specimen you’re a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) amateur, Guardians of the Galaxy has been a miracle since 2014. Compared to its comic-book counterparts, it’s an eccentric and eclectic vapor of fresh air with a killer soundtrack and spectacle chops rivalling any Will Ferrell production. Of course, it has all the normal drippings of an MCU movie (big cast, worthier explosions and plane worthier muscles), but the franchise, now in its third and rumoured to be final installment, has an plane worthier heart — and Klementieff is at the centre of it. Her character, Mantis, introduced in 2017’s sequel, is a big-eyed antennaed Celestial empath who can tenancy people’s emotions. “She’s kinda like the glue that keeps the Guardians together, expressly in volume three,” says Klementieff, who moreover loves that she gets to be the comic relief — a role not usually given to women. “It gives me a lot of self-rule to just be weird,” she says, which is something I can tell she delights in. Klementieff is quick to laugh and plane quicker to laugh at herself. She is unusually unguarded and readily shares her stream of consciousness, whether she is receiving a package (as she did in the middle of our call) or contemplating why she can’t do a cartwheel (“I never know if my legs are straight!”).

Dress, $3,200, Prada. Earrings, $4,100, ring (left), $5,450, and ring (right), $5,500, Cartier. Photography by Royal Gilbert

The only topic she seems reluctant to discuss is her family. Klementieff suffered a series of devastating tropical personal losses, starting with the death of her father when she was still very young. In drastic need of some escapism, she immersed herself in movies. “As a child, I had a little dream in my throne to wilt an actor, but I never saw anyone who looked like me onscreen so I didn’t think it would be possible,” she shares. Though she thrived in theatre classes from a young age, Klementieff went to law school to placate her family. She dropped out soon after, realizing that life was too short to not do something you love. “I never wanted an office job,” she admits. “I aspired for venture and something outside the norm.” Increasingly specifically, Klementieff wanted to kick some ass.

Dress (worn on top), $20,310, gloves (worn on top), $3,970, and dress (worn underneath) and gloves (worn underneath), prices upon request, Bottega Veneta. Photography by Royal Gilbert

Listing Kill Bill and Park Chan-wook’s The Vengeance Trilogy as significant influences in her life, Klementieff was inspired by the image of a “strong, unapologetic and crazy fighter sexuality character.” She took up boxing and (later) martial arts, and as luck would have it, her first major role was playing a villainous bodyguard in Spike Lee’s 2013 version of Chan-wook’s Oldboy. “Training is unchangingly hard, but that’s the eyeful of it,” says Klementieff. “It puts you in whoopee mode instead of stuff passive and sad — it just makes you happier.”

And, boy, does it make Klementieff happy. I can barely finish my question surpassing she launches into her detailed fight history, animatedly describing how eager she was to show off her skills in Guardians. “When I got the audition, I was so excited that I sent training videos to the producers at Marvel,” she shares. “And then I found out that my weft didn’t really fight, and I was like, ‘What the hell, guys!’” Without years of pushing, Klementieff finally got physical in 2022’s The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and in Vol. 3.

Jacket, $4,490, and skirt, $2,755, Moschino. Earrings and ring, prices upon request, Chanel. Photography by Royal Gilbert

However, nothing hits quite like a Tom Cruise movie, as the two-face is famous for his practical tideway to filmmaking and death-defying stunts. Klementieff started training for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One in 2019 and hasn’t had a unravel since. She tells me she was just in the Arctic two weeks earlier, fighting off frostbite while filming the sequel. And surpassing that, she was triumphal her 100th skydive. “It’s unchangingly a little bit scary, but there’s the excitement of the unknown,” she muses. “It’s like dancing in the sky — poetic and very addictive.”

Top, $310, Raey at MatchesFashion. Pantashoes, $3,270, Victoria Beckham. Earrings, $4,100, necklace, $8,220, bracelet, $10,700, ring (left), $1,670, and ring (right), $5,350, Cartier. Photography by Royal Gilbert

Klementieff’s thrill-seeking tendencies moreover wield to the red carpet. “I love taking malleate risks and thinking outside the box,” she shares, describing how she tries to find a wastefulness between having fun and “not stuff the centre of attention.” To unzip this, she has defended folders of inspirational images saved on Instagram that consist primarily of travel, tattoos and motorcycles. Given her tough-girl aesthetic, this is whimsically surprising. She’s been known to waddle a stocky choker, unvigilant shoulder and structured suit to a premiere, but her style took a definite step up without she became one of the faces of Alexander McQueen. While Klementieff currently stars in the British brand’s Spring 2023 wayfarers — slantingly former FASHION imbricate star Sadie Sink — she tells me that the leather two-piece she wore to the 2022 Cannes Film Festival might be one of her all-time favourites. “The noise those boots made was crazy — I sounded like a f*cking cowboy,” she laughs. “But I loved not wearing a gown and stuff a little rebel.”

JACKET, $920, PANTS, $480, AND BROOCH, $600, PHILOSOPHY DI LORENZO SERAFINI. EARRINGS, $4,100, RING (LEFT), $5,450, RING (RIGHT, NARROW), $1,670, AND RING (RIGHT, WIDE), $5,350, CARTIER. Photography by Royal Gilbert

With two blockbusters in play, I doubt Klementieff will be “little” for much longer. She’s a sweet soul wrapped in a tough moto package who can’t cartwheel but can certainly skydive. For now, she has full days and then a month-long Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 printing spin superiority of her, which quite honestly sounds exhausting. But at least she’ll get the opportunity to travel. “In some ways, stuff in one place for too long gives me anxiety,” she reveals, referring to both her past and her present. “I live in a suitcase, so home is where the people I love are. And I have so many friends in so many variegated places that it feels like my heart is torn between cities.” Maybe this time she’ll plane make it to Canada.

Dress (worn on top), $20,310, gloves (worn on top), $3,970, and dress (worn underneath) and gloves (worn underneath), prices upon request, Bottega Veneta. Photography by Royal Gilbert