Story By: Anna Guran, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN/@dukhovnoe_litso
This 24-year-old martial arts expert has been bombarded with new fans on her Instagram page after people realised she looks like a real-life Alita Battle Angel – and she can fight.
Mariya Oz, who also works part-time as a model, has amazingly large eyes which instantly caught the attention of the online community after the launch of the James Cameron cyberpunk action movie Alita: Battle Angel.
Pictures Credit: CEN/@dukhovnoe_litso
The film is based on a manga comic and is set hundreds of years in the future in which cyborg Alita battles against the evil Nova. The character of Alita is played by American actress Rosa Salazar with movie trickery used to give her super large eyes.
However, real-life Mariya needs no digital technology to affect the size of her eyes, which she says she inherited from her dad, and she can fight too as she practices martial arts.
Video Credit: CEN/@dukhovnoe_litso
In an interview with Central European News (CEN), she said she was stunned when she suddenly started getting thousands of likes on her page, and had to look up who Alita was when she started reading some of the comments.
The young woman, who lives in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, told CEN: “I only looked at the film because I was being told I look like Alita. I like doing mixed martial arts, so it was really interesting for me to watch the film.”
Video Credit: CEN/@dukhovnoe_litso
Online commentators like ‘Fabienne Cichulska’ posted: “Oh my God, you look so much like Alita from Battle Angel, your eyes are so cool.”
And ‘Avya Braam’ added: “You have to act in films.”
However Mariya earns her money from part-time modelling and also making animated films with her work inspired by people like Wes Anderson and Tim Burton.
Video Credit: CEN/@dukhovnoe_litso
She likes posting pictures of herself online and has been doing so since she was 14, and said it was interesting that she was now being compared with the film’s punchy protagonist, although she said she did not agree with the comparison.
She added: “I am often told that I resemble this or that big-eyed girl, but I don’t think about it. I am me.”
Along with the praise however, there has also been some people accusing her of using her graphic skills to alter the size of her eyes, and she responded by posting similar snaps from different angles to prove that everything is genuine.
Video Credit: CEN/@dukhovnoe_litso
She said she had also offered to meet up with anybody who wanted to accuse her to her face of having faked her images, pointing out: “It’s not for nothing that I do mixed martial arts. So far, nobody has taken me up on the offer.”
She said: “It’s a lot of work to create an online presence, although I don’t regard myself as an influencer. I just like to show people my creative side, and am pleased when I get a positive response.”
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