She says she heard about her Bond casting when shooting Three And Out. "It's been so insane, I was at drama school and working in a make-up shop, now I'm lying here, jetting there, working with actors, directors and top people, it feels proper unbelievable. I've used most of my earnings so far to buy bits and bobs from Primark. "For a start, I still have student debts to pay off. "I don't feel like a rising star at all," she says. Speaking on the 007 set at Pinewood, she is a breath of fresh air, unassuming, honest and very giggly. Once she left Rada, Arterton began working straight away, securing the role of head girl Kelly in the updated version of St Trinian's, which was released at the end of last year, before going on to feature in the Mackenzie Crook comedy Three And Out, and then Guy Ritchie's latest offering, RocknRolla. When I got to drama school at Rada, there were all these people going: 'Oh, my dad used to watch Ken Loach films,' and I would be thinking, 'Who is Ken Loach?'" She was never that into film when I was growing up. "She's very proud of me, but she doesn't go on about it. Her single mother, who worked as a cleaner, raised her. What makes the story so intriguing is every character has its faults and there are different elements to Tess too, that's why people like her, they can relate to her today."Īrterton was raised in Gravesend, Kent, and says she was born with a number of "oddities", including extra digits on each hand, which had to be removed, and a "crumpled ear". "I'm from a working class background and always felt that Tess would have had this awkwardness to her, particularly as she's put in a situation that she's not comfortable with. I definitely didn't want to play her as a victim. Although people chip away at her life, she grows stronger, which is the incredible thing about her. Tess is a straightforward country girl, very pretty, but unaware of her beauty. I was too young to really understand it first time around. "Coming to the drama again almost 10 years later was a very different experience. "I once played the character of Hope, Tess's younger sister, in a school play," Arterton says. Arterton beat 1,500 other hopefuls to secure the role, and when the film opens it will round off an exceptional month for the young starlet, who also graced the small screen during October, playing the leading role in the BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess Of The D'Urbervilles and before that as Elizabeth Bennet in ITV's Lost In Austen. His film will be greeted by high expectations: Casino Royale took almost £350m at the international box office.Ĭraig helped reinvent the 007 franchise, and the competition among the actors vying for supporting parts was intense. The film is directed by Marc Forster, the Oscar-winner behind Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland and The Kite Runner. The film picks up one hour after the last instalment finished, with Bond and M (Dame Judi Dench) seen interrogating Mr White, the man to whom Bond's lover, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), had passed on her beau's gambling win in Casino Royale. In Arterton's best job ever she stars as Agent Fields, an MI6 operative who falls in love with 007 before coming to a rather unpleasant end. Honestly, this is just the best job ever." And now we're going to have to do it again.'"Īnd is Craig a good kisser? "Incredible," she says. He just said something like 'Yes, we did. We had a kissing scene and when we were done I mumbled something silly like 'We just kissed'. The moment Arterton arrived on the set at Pinewood Studios to begin work on the first Bond sequel, Quantum Of Solace, she was asked to disrobe and shoot a love scene. If meeting Craig proved bizarre, their first scene together was positively nerve-racking. "I was quite nervous on the first day with him, because he's someone you see acting so well on screen and to actually meet him is quite bizarre." I remember thinking: 'Well, I never thought I'd end up acting with that person coming out the water in their trunks, let alone giving them a kiss.' "I went to see it last year and thought it was fantastic. "When I saw Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, I was just like: 'Phwoar!'" says the 22-year-old. She talks to Andrea Hale of Scotland On Sunday about 'the best job ever' in the latest 007 blockbuster, kissing with confidence and Daniel Craig's 'phwoar factor'.Įveryone gets a few butterflies on their first day in a new job, but for Bond girl Gemma Arterton, the experience was especially intense. From working-class drama student to new Bond girl, Gemma Arterton has enjoyed a remarkable rise in fortunes.
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