The British actress has hit the headlines for her curvy frame in the past, with some people criticising her for putting on weight.

The 26-year-old refuses to bow to pressure though and has no intention of dropping dress sizes just to please others. She thinks it’s unfair that people feel they can comment on her shape, especially as occasionally they are very rude.

Being compared to dowdy 50-year-old Scottish singer Susan was a step too far for Gemma.

“There was one reporter on the red carpet who said, ‘How does it feel to know the press thinks you’re fat?’ And I said, ‘How does it feel to know you are ugly and unintelligent?’ It was the equivalent of me giving him a wallop. I nearly did actually,” she told the March edition of UK Vogue.

“Someone else told me I looked like Susan Boyle. At first, you get really upset about it. And then you just get really bored with it. I wish I didn’t give a sh*t four years ago. It’s not my job to be Miss Perfect. I’m not a model, I’m an actor.”

Gemma wasn’t always one to turn the other cheek. As a young girl she remembers being furious when a man made sexual overtures to her while she was out with friends.

“I was quite strong-willed and not very good with boys. I was in this sh*t club in Gravesend [in the UK] and this boy pinched my a**e,” she recalled. “I turned around a decked him.

“He just didn’t know what hit him. Obviously, um, I did.”

The actress is now happily settled with her husband Stefano Catelli, who she married in 2010.

The couple spend a lot of time apart due to Gemma’s job but make sure they don’t go more than three weeks without seeing each other.

He is from Italy and comes from a Catholic background and Gemma gets on well with his family.

“[His mother is] like the anti-Italian mum – very chilled out,” she laughed.

“We decided not to have a religious ceremony, and we were worried that it might upset Stefano’s family – but they were so happy for us, because they could see we really love each other.”

Source

Benedict Cumberbatch, Gemma Arterton and Jonny Lee Miller are featured in the February 2012 issue of Vogue UK. They were photographed at London Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

GALLERY LINKS:
- Scans > Vogue (UK) – February 2012
- Scans > Clippings From 2012 –> thanks to the wonderful Lorna for the Star scan
- Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) > Related Clippings > SFX (UK) – March 2012
- Byzantium (2012) > Related Clippings > Related Clippings > Daily Mail (UK) – January 13, 2012

Don’t forget to join the Gemma Arterton Online Bubble for a chance to win an autograph or a DVD!

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

The actress stars as Clara, a vampire who has to protect herself and her daughter (played by Saoirse Ronan) from those seeking to plunge a stake through their hearts.

‘She’s brittle and she’s a fighter,’ said Gemma of the role she plays in Byzantium, which is directed by Neil Jordan.

The film — set in both the 18th century and the modern day — is not all glossy surface nonsense like the Twilight pictures. For starters, it has a compelling storyline and much better actors, including Sam Riley, Daniel Mays, Jonny Lee Miller and Tom Hollander.

Byzantium is based on A Vampire Story, a play Moira Buffini wrote for the National Theatre. Buffini then worked with Jordan and producers Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen to develop the stage drama into a movie.

‘There’s blood and vampires and all of that, but we focus on the mother-daughter relationship,’ Gemma assured me.

Although Gemma said she did an exaggerated version of her Kent-Thames estuary accent in the remakes of the St. Trinian’s films, she told me she gets to do ‘my accent for once in Byzantium — she’s from the hood’. And, as she pointed out, Hastings — where the film is set — isn’t far from her native Kent.

Gemma’s also in kick-ass form in another movie, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. ‘It’s about these damaged kids really, and now we’re all grown up,’ she told me.

Jeremy Renner, currently to be seen in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, plays Hansel to Gemma’s Gretel.

‘Gretel’s quite wild. She’s super cool, and violent,’ Gemma added, describing the action as Tarantino-esque. ‘She has a crossbow, she headbutts people, folk get decapitated, noses get bitten off. It’s so ridiculous that it’s funny, but I wouldn’t mess with her.’

The film’s due out early next year. Gemma has a change of pace in another film, Song For Marion, a gentle drama with a heart in which she plays a teacher and choir-mistress opposite Terence Stamp, Vanessa Redgrave and Christopher Eccleston.

By Baz Bamigboye

Source

We’re more used to seeing her oozing glamour on the red carpet in haute couture and full make-up.

But actress and Bond girl Gemma Arterton could have been mistaken for just another student as she roamed the UCD campus yesterday.

Make-up-free and wearing a casual grey cardigan and practical, puffa-style jacket, teamed with leggings and biker boots, the 25-year-old British star was dressed for the chilly January weather.

But the overall effect meant she was virtually unrecognisable from her role as a glamorous brunette in the James Bond movie ‘Quantum Of Solace‘.

Ms Arterton was even spotted having a sneaky cigarette on the steps of her trailer during breaks from shooting director Neil Jordan’s latest offering, the vampire thriller ‘Byzantium‘.

A heavily bearded Brendan Gleeson was also spotted on set, laden down with shopping bags and sporting an equally casual look.

The star of ‘The Guard‘, whose much anticipated directorial debut — an adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s ‘At Swim Two Birds‘ is also due out this year — may have been seeking some advice from the veteran director.

Jordan directed Gleeson in a number of movies, most notably ‘Breakfast On Pluto‘.

The stars were photographed during a short break on set at UCD.

Filming for the movie — which also stars Irish starlet Saoirse Ronan as a 200-year-old, piano-playing vampire — began in the UK in December before moving to Ireland.

‘Quantum of Solace‘ star Ms Arterton plays Ronan’s mother in a story which sees her turn her daughter into a vampire before going on a killing spree in a seaside town. The pair also pose as sisters.

‘Byzantium‘ is an adaptation of ‘The Vampire Stories‘, a play written by Moira Buffini, and is a big shift from Jordan’s 2009 lyrical mermaid romance ‘Ondine‘, which starred Colin Farrell and the future mother of his child, Alicja Bachleda.

The film has received funding from the Irish Film Board and from the UK Film Council and has an overall budget of just €8m.

It also stars Caleb Landry Jones from ‘X-Men‘ in the male lead role and boasts a mainly Irish crew.

Shooting for the Irish scenes began in Bray, Co Wicklow last month before moving on to UCD. It will also take place in a number of locations around Dublin.

- Edel O’Connell

Source

Gemma is also featured alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller in the February 2012 issue of Vogue UK. I’ll be adding a scan as soon as I can find a copy of the magazine or as soon as someone is kind enough to send me a contribution.

GALLERY LINK:
- Scans > Stylist (UK) – October 5, 2011, big thanks to Lorna

Don’t forget to join the Gemma Arterton Online Bubble for a chance to win an autograph or a DVD!

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

GALLERY LINK:
- Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2012) > Related Clippings > Best Movie (Italy) – January 2012

Don’t forget to join the Gemma Arterton Online Bubble for a chance to win an autograph or a DVD!

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

Gallery Link:
- Scans: You (UK) – December 4, 2011

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

By Amy Williams

Taking time out from her filming schedule to draw attention to the deforestation crisis in Brazil was a no-brainer for Gemma Arterton. Amy Williams discovers why the actress prefers trekking in the remote Amazon jungle to being ‘styled and polished’ for premieres

Acording to Gemma Arterton, A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures, an animated film that was released last March and which very few people over the age of eight will have heard of, is ‘honestly, the best movie I have ever made’ and ‘absolutely brilliant’ and ‘cute but with a serious message. There are oil spills and stuff.’ Gemma provides the voice of love-interest turtle Shelly.

That Gemma – a former Bond girl who has found fame through blockbusters such as Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time and Clash of the Titans, and plaudits via critically acclaimed movies The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Tamara Drewe – should choose a film which is a) a cartoon, b) has the tag line ‘He’s Turtlely Amazing’, and c), in Gemma’s own words, ‘no one has actually seen’, tells us quite a bit about 25-year-old Ms Arterton.

One thing she appears not to do is take herself too seriously. Which is surprising for a young actress whose CV has steely ambition written all over it (when not filming, or voicing, she takes to the stage – this year in Ibsen’s The Master Builder). A colleague of mine said that she assumed Gemma was humourless because she never looked very happy on the red carpet.

‘That’s hilarious. Me? Nah, I’m not very serious at all,’ Gemma laughs, big brown eyes wide open with incredulity. ‘You should see me with my husband – we are complete idiots when it’s the two of us and we’re with our dog Perla. She’s a shar pei so she’s got this wrinkly nose and every time I look at her I smile.’

A Turtle’s Tale also alludes to an inner eco-chic – in fact, the reason that I find myself discussing the adventures of Shelly and big bad oil spills is because we’re here to talk about the environment, though less about turtles and more about trees, as Gemma has just returned from a six-day journey to the deepest Amazon with Sky Rainforest Rescue.

It’s a trip for which the humourless need not apply. Last year, when I travelled to the same region for the same project with singer Lily Allen, we got stranded in torrential rain on a mud road in an ill-equipped minibus, which we then had to push; we sat through statistic-heavy lectures in 38C heat, and consequently drank the eco-lodge bar dry of caipirinhas. I would bet on it getting a paragraph or two in Lily’s memoirs.

This time I’m meeting Gemma in the comfort of her publicist’s London office. We plonk ourselves on a sofa with a pot of tea. They don’t get many tourists in Acre, the huge Brazilian state on the border of Peru where Sky Rainforest Rescue is based, so it’s an experience over which we bond instantly. ‘It’s so far-flung, isn’t it?’ says Gemma, ‘The whole thing… You travel on three planes and arrive in the middle of nowhere. It’s the kind of place you know you’ll never just “end up.”’
When I ask her why she volunteered she gives the standard answer about having a break between films and wanting to develop her charity work, but I get a sense that this is far from a personal PR project. For starters, there was no Arterton entourage – there wasn’t even a plus one. Pretty brave, I say, to go it alone (albeit with a team from Sky and WWF). She explains that her husband of 18 months, fashion sales manager Stefano Catelli, ‘would have loved it’ but couldn’t get the time off work, and her publicist couldn’t get a visa in time. The cause suits her, she explains, having grown up in a hippie household. (She lived with her mother Sally-Anne, a cleaner, after her parents separated when she was five. Her father Barry is a welder.) ‘We went to Womad [the festival] every year and as children we were always clued up on being green and that kind of thing.’

Plus, Gemma is young enough to have been heavily schooled, at her Gravesend comprehensive, in 1990s hot topics such as the ozone layer – or lack of it – and global warming (‘I’m not really bookish, but I was actually quite good at geography,’ she says, ‘I always know where places are in
the world’). So she gets it and she is well aware that her job is to help reinvigorate an issue that is not as trendy as it used to be.
So here come the facts, folks: the Amazon rainforest is still disappearing at a rate of three football pitches every minute*, as swathes of forest are destroyed for farmland and the building of roads. Sky Rainforest Rescue aims to save one billion trees, and, working with local governments, has helped secure a change in the law, which allows cash incentives to be offered to local communities in order to encourage an economy based on saving trees and not cutting them down. Gemma doesn’t beat about the bush. ‘They are poor, so they have to chop down trees. It would be very narrow-minded of us to deny them the right to make money, or to have access to a decent road, so it’s about compromise,’ she says.

‘One girl I met walked five hours to her job as a rubber tapper [a sustainable use of the forest – utilising trees rather than destroying them], another told me that during the rainy season it takes three days to get to a hospital. Can you imagine?’

Conditions are tough – the remoteness, the oppressive heat, the poverty. It’s not something Gemma has ever witnessed before. She went from school to Rada, then straight into that very rare thing – back-to-back employment as an actor. There was no time for gap years or round-the-world airline tickets. ‘I wish I had taken a year out. I have a longing to go to India. We filmed some of Bond in Panama City and that was a real eye opener,’ she says. ‘We live in such excessive times, so being in the thick of things in Brazil does make you feel a little uncomfortable; it makes you rethink what you do have and what you can change. “Get on your bike!” I now say to myself.’

Out and about at home in South London, she says she rarely gets much attention and mostly hangs out with an extended group of friends. ‘That’s the great thing about getting married – your friendship groups merge, so we’ve got quite a big circle. And no one ever talks about work with me, ever. I hate it when people act differently around me just because I’m famous.’
She must have been recognised in Brazil. I can’t help but think the positive reaction she received from locals may have had slightly more to do with her movie-star status than the project she was promoting. ‘Well, there was one night when we were having drinks and a local girl came over. She was so sweet and kept saying “ohmygod”, but I don’t think she’d seen any of my films. People had just heard that there was a Bond girl in town. That often happens, and they don’t have a clue who I am,’ she says, giggling at a flashback. ‘That’s the night people were taking photos of me dancing on the tables!’ she laughs, not a bit concerned. ‘I mean, they’re not on the internet…yet!’

Gemma makes a good jungle Jane – more at home fresh-faced and in a headscarf than on the red carpet in designer garb. ‘To be honest, I find it the oddest thing to be styled and polished. It’s something I don’t recognise. Sometimes when they doll me up I look at myself in the mirror and think I look like a drag queen.’ She pauses for reflection. ‘Being in the jungle is a bit more me.’

Being a former devotee of bikram yoga helped her cope with the sweat-fest of jungle humidity. ‘I no longer get freaked out by sweating. I didn’t used to be able to perspire too much – I’d just go red and faint!’ She prefers drier forms of yoga now, she says, and Zumba dancing.

She’s an active sort, is Gemma: she likes to keep fit so she can do her own stunts. ‘There is
a scene in Prince of Persia where I had to ride a black stallion towards 15 wild horses that were galloping in my direction. Honestly, I thought I was going to die!’ she says.

Her next projects, the vampire film Byzantium with Saoirse Ronan, and Song for Marion with Vanessa Redgrave, are both stunt free – ‘Though I’m having to learn to play the piano from scratch and to conduct for Song for Marion. We could end up fudging it quite a lot,’ she laughs. Gemma did, though, arrive in the rainforest with a Casio keyboard on which to practise for the role, and luckily she’s mates with Goldie (who won the BBC’s conducting challenge Maestro), so she’s going to enlist his help.

I wonder if she had concerns over putting her face to the rainforest cause; if she’s worried that people might roll their eyes at yet another celebrity dipping into and quickly out of a poverty-stricken region. Is she concerned that she might not make a difference? ‘Well, yeah, I do think about that, but then everyone can make a difference. They say that if we all turned off our appliances at night
there would be enough energy to power Britain.’ So you’ve got to be in it to win it. ‘Exactly. Like
life in general. Like buying a lottery ticket – you might as well try.’

Gemma Arterton visited Brazil with Sky Rainforest Rescue – Sky and WWF’s campaign to help save a billion trees. Amazon, an exhibition of images by Sebastião Salgado and Per-Anders Pettersson featuring photographs from Gemma’s trip, is at Somerset House, London WC2 until 18 December.

For information, visit sky.com/rainforestrescue

Source

What kind of adult does a kid become after surviving a trip to a cannibalistic witch’s gingerbread house?

That’s the premise of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters* (out March 2), which uses the centuries-old German folktale as a preamble to a larger story of vengeance and the bonds between siblings — particularly abused ones.

Next Thursday, look for a trailer from the Paramount film. But for now, we see a first look at Jeremy Renner’s Hansel and Gemma Arterton’s Gretel, all grown up. (Click the picture for a larger view.)

Though older, they’re still prowling the woods for little old ladies who like to devour wayward children. Arterton discussed the approach of the movie, directed by Tommy Wirkola (the Nazi zombie saga Dead Snow), and how it’s as much Pulp Fiction as fairytale…

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How does this movie incorporate the original Brothers Grimm tale? Is that story kind of a prologue?
GEMMA ARTERON: Yes, it continues it. You see a series of flashbacks with their experience of killing that first witch, which is brilliant. I remember being on set for the final few days of that. The candy house, and the witches are really repulsive and quite frightening. The makeup is out of this world. It’s this bone-chilling scene. Very dark. The girl who plays my character is brilliant, with the horrified expression she has.

Folktales like this have been told over and over again, changing every time. What’s the constant that your movie picks up?
They resonate with your fears, that’s how these fairy tales worked. They scared you into behaving. This one in particular is about abandonment and being lost and parents leaving you. The heart of it is that these kids grow up to be bloodthirsty witch hunters. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, really. What would Hansel and Gretel be in 15 years time?

Though it’s comedic, deep down it’s about abused kids becoming kind of hyper-responsible?
But it’s also very, very dark, and bloodthirsty and there’s a lot of cursing. It’s kind of got a [Quentin] Tarantino feel, really.

Interesting. So instead of Jules and Vincent, we have Hansel and Gretel. And beyond being killers, they’re siblings who feel they need to protect each other?
We spent a lot of time thinking about that and behaving like brother and sister, making it detailed so it wasn’t just two actors kicking butt, really. That would get boring. In our minds, these are two people who grew up with no parents and they only have each other and the bond they have, and with the complexities of that, some resentment.

They would be pretty messed up, come to think of it. After nearly being eaten …
They had to murder somebody when they are kids! So it’s all about being tough. Jeremy and I found within the script moments where we showed the vulnerable side of them. Often in action movies, people are scared to put that in. I think it was important. Just a couple moments, tender moments, when the guard drops, then you understand.

What differentiates the brother and sister?
Gretel is much more in tune with her spiritual side. Hansel is a typical action hero, cheeky, funny, a womanizer. She’s much more of a thinker, intense, internal and bit more open-minded than he is.

Renner says his Hansel is like Han Solo. Is Gretel a tough wisecracker, too? Or is she Chewbacca?
Even though Gretel is very tough and can handle herself, she’s still a girl. [Laughs.] She’s got feminine ways.

Source

GALLERY LINK:
- Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2012): Promotional Stills

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

Please join our new Gemma Arterton Online bubble!!!

Gallery links:
- Scans: Independent On Sunday (UK) – November 20, 2011, thanks to Lorna
- Scans: Daily Mail (UK) – November 21, 2011, thanks to Lorna
- Scans: Hello (UK) – November 21, 2011, thanks to Lorna
- Scans: ES Magazine (UK) – October 14, 2011, thanks to Lorna
- Scans: Hello (UK) – November 14, 2011

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

Former Bond girl Gemma, 25, tells me she is off to study strippers after filmmaker Neil Jordan cast her as a lady of the night in his next movie.

‘I play a prostitute called Clara. It’s a tough role but more and more I am choosing parts that are as different from the real me as possible.

‘I’m not scared of a challenge. I prefer it that way,’ she tells me.

Gemma, who married sales manager Stefano last summer in a ceremony in Andalucia, adds that to get into the part properly she will have to visit some less than salubrious venues.

‘I’m going to have to go to a strip club or somewhere like that,’ says Gemma, who was giving out the best actor gong at the Evening Standard theatre awards.

‘It’s something I’m dreading because I am a real prude and I know that in places like that my immediate reaction is to feel “eugh”.

‘But I’ve got to understand it’s something I need to do for the part. I will not be going with my husband.’

Source

People always bring up movies I’m not proud of Sometimes I think, ‘Oh God,’ but in a way they serve a purpose; they allow me to go off and do other things. Loads of actors do it, and I have to remind myself of that.

Being on stage makes me feel alive With film, you’ve no control over the finished product – something I feel increasingly irritated by – but on stage, I have control over what I do, and it’s where I can really flourish.

Stephen Dillane is one of the best actors in the world I played opposite him in [an acclaimed stage production of Ibsen's] Master Builder. It’s a fascinating play about a middle-aged architect [played by Dillane] and the ambiguous relationship I have with him. I’ve done plays where you think, ‘Urghh, God, I’ve got to do that scene again,’ but with [Dillane] I never got bored.

I have a terrible temper It’s because I’m a perfectionist, particularly when cooking. Once I made the perfect lemon meringue pie, from scratch, but one small thing went wrong and I threw the whole thing against the wall.

I like not knowing what my next job is I deal well with the uncertainty and relish the surprises. I couldn’t have been an actor without that [ability].

Always listen to your instincts I had an amazing acting teacher when I was studying and she said that instincts were always right. Whenever I haven’t listened to them, I’ve always regretted it, whether it’s looking at a piece of art I want to buy or reading a script.

Never put pressure on yourself to be something I was never really academic so if I hadn’t have been an actor I would have been an artist, I think.

I wish everyone could go to the [Amazon] rainforest and see the huge areas of deforestation After my trip there [promoting the World Wildlife Fund's campaign to help save a billion trees] I got more conscientious. I don’t eat red meat now because lots of the rainforest is being destroyed to make way for cattle ranches. It’s a small thing but I believe it makes a difference.

Gemma Arterton, 25, is an English actor. Sky Rainforest Rescue’s ‘Amazon‘, featuring photographs from Gemma’s trip, runs until 4 December at London’s Somerset House. sky.com/rainforestrescue

Source

Please join our new Gemma Arterton Online bubble!!!

Gallery links:
- Events: Eight Days by Venetia Dearden – Private View
- Candids: November 17, 2011
- Scans: ES Magazine (UK) – October 14, 2011, thanks to Lorna

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

Gemma Arterton used to be ‘the girl from the Bond film’, but three years on she has stopped feeling grateful and begun speaking out about her industry

The first film role Gemma Arterton played was Mickey Mouse. She was five, her younger sister, taking on the role of Donald Duck, was two, “and there’s this video of us, where we’re watching Mickey Mouse and I’m making my sister act it out with me. And I’ve really got it down! I used to do that stuff all the time, just copying.” Disney films were pretty much the only art in her childhood, she says. “My family was never cultural in that we never went to see plays, my mum wasn’t very into films.” It wasn’t until she was about 16 that she realised that acting could be a legitimate job.

From that realisation – then on to a performance arts course, before a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) – to here has been a dizzying climb. Since she graduated four years ago, Arterton, 25, has done Shakespeare and Ibsen on the stage; forgettable roles in big-budget action films Prince of Persia and Clash of the Titans; glorious performances as Tess of the D’Urbervilles on the BBC and in last year’s film of Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel (and Guardian comic strip) Tamara Drewe.

Her role in 2009′s dark indie thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed, and her theatre work, offset some serious typecasting: in too many films, most famously in Daniel Craig’s second James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, Arterton appeared as little more than the sex object. Three years on, she is still referred to in newspaper pieces as “Bond girl Gemma Arterton”. But if her CV makes it look as if she was unable to say no to anything, at least it propelled her into a place from where she can pick and choose. “It’s nice to be in the position where you don’t have to do a big movie just because it’s got so-and-so in it. You can say no. That’s a luxury. In the past I’ve done things that I’ve been like, ‘why did I do that?’” Like what? “You can guess,” she says. “I thought, ‘you don’t have to do those things.’ There’s an obvious reason why people do those movies, but you don’t have to.”

Along the way Arterton has earned herself a reputation as someone outspoken about the pressures on young women in her industry. She has complained about the pressures to be thin (in one particularly vicious piece, the Daily Mail sniped that she was looking “distinctly jowly”), and the pressures to keep her mouth shut. In a world where many young stars have all their personalities and opinions media-trained out of them, Arterton is a rare find.

In a PR office in London, I sit across from her over a huge boardroom table. Reading from my notes, it feels as though I’m interviewing her for an office job. She said in one interview it was hard to be a feminist in the acting world. What did she mean by that? “It’s such a male-dominated industry,” she says, eyes rolling. “You can be a feminist, it’s just difficult because it sometimes comes back at you. Actually, in the last year I’ve found it less, because people know I’m a feminist now.” I wonder how they know. Does she wear a badge? “I found, sometimes the way I’m spoken to, or regarded … In the last year, the respect for me as an actor rather than as just the girl from the Bond film has changed. I think a lot of it is down to that I am now choosing who I am working with. I meet somebody, and it’s a two-way decision. It’s not me going, ‘please will you employ me?’ Now it’s, ‘am I going to be able to collaborate with you and have a conversation that’s not about how big your trailer is?’ It’s become easier that way.”

When she first started, she says, “it was if the world had done me a favour. Especially on the bigger movies, it was like, ‘you’re lucky you’re here, so don’t speak up’, and that was frustrating.” She is weighing her words so carefully that I feel I have to keep poking her. Does she mean her ideas weren’t listened to, or there were things she didn’t want to do? “Yeah. Or things I just don’t believe in that seem important. I’m not really supposed to do big commercial movies because I don’t really believe in the … ” She lets the sentence hang. “The industry is quite chauvinistic generally. Expectations of women, girls, what they should look like, how they should be, what they should say, what they should wear, how their hair should be, what colour their skin should be. It’s always going to be like that. It’s not so much like that in theatre or independent film, and that’s why I’m sort of gravitating towards those now, because otherwise you’re fighting a losing battle and never going to win it. You’re just going to be known as the mouthy one who gets in trouble for saying what she thinks. I thought to myself, do I say stuff or do I silently be a feminist. What’s the best thing to do?”

Can you be a “silent feminist”? Surely Arterton has to speak out, because if not her, with her cleverness and her success, then who? “Sometimes it’s hard, because I am a sensitive person, I’m not a warrior, and sometimes I say something and I can feel a bit hurt about the way it’s perceived.” Why does she care? “Often things are misconstrued – you say things and they are written about in a different way. And sometimes it’s just not the right thing to do. You can become more known for being a spokesperson than an actor, and I don’t want that to happen. But then, you look at someone like Vanessa Redgrave, and she’s amazing. She just doesn’t give a fuck. I think I still care a little bit too much [about what people think] to be that person. She’s so accomplished, she can say what she wants. I often get: ‘you’re not very talented, so why are you even standing there?’, so I feel a little bit like, ‘maybe I shouldn’t say anything then.’”

Anyway, I say, it’s refreshing to hear a woman describe herself as a feminist (even one who has stripped to pants and suspenders for men’s magazines – perhaps, like the totty bit-parts, those days are behind her now, too). “I wish more would admit to being, because most women are feminists. I think it’s hard to watch when you see people not helping the sisterhood. I don’t know why it’s still a taboo to be a feminist. I think people think you’re going to have a big old hairy muff and be mouthy and spit on men.”

I shoot a look at the PR officer, who is sitting at the other end of the table, armed with a huge wedge of papers and notes. We are supposed to be talking about Sky Rainforest Rescue, for which Arterton is an ambassador. It is two years in to a three-year project, run by the broadcaster together with WWF, to conserve 1bn trees in Acre, an area of Brazil around the size of Belgium. Arterton went there in July, to visit some of the projects aiming to limit deforestation by providing local families with livelihoods, such as building new rubber processing units so people can get higher prices for sustainable rubber tapping, which means trees will be conserved rather than felled for grazing. “It’s easy to cut down trees and get cattle to graze on the land and then sell the cattle, but then that part of the rainforest becomes barren. It’s not really their fault, and that’s what the initiative is about – giving them other options, because they don’t really want to cut down the rainforest, they love it. It’s about making the trees more valuable alive than dead. I got to meet farmers who have these very dedicated lives. We trekked for hours to get to them. I tried my hand at rubber tapping, which is quite hard – they produce a small amount of rubber really, if you think about the amount of time it takes. Like anything, when you go to somewhere where they don’t have what we have, you feel very grateful.”

She is wary of celebrity involvement in charities – she also works for the Prince’s Trust and a charity for the blind – but is pragmatic about what she offers: “I particularly like this campaign because it’s not preachy. It’s not, ‘I’m doing this.’ It’s me just being there and showing something, rather than being like a saint. I’m not. The reason they ask you is that people know who you are, and that’s what you bring to it. I think some people can feel you are being a bit high-horsey, which I understand as well. We do, especially people who work in showbusiness, have a lot of privileges. Sometimes things can be a bit meaningless in the job I do – not in the creative, work side, but I spend a lot of time doing publicity and promotional stuff and it’s much more gratifying to do this kind of promotional stuff than talking about a movie.”

Arterton says she has her mother and aunt to thank for her views. “They were both very instrumental in my upbringing. My aunt is a lesbian and very, very feminist. I was brought up by these two women who were very independent and it makes you … We were never man-haters or anything, just like, ‘It’s good to be a woman.’” Her father, a welder, and her mother, a cleaner, broke up when she was five, and she describes her family as “big and dysfunctional” but happy. After the separation, Arterton grew up with her mother and younger sister on a council estate in Gravesend.

She says drama school was “intimidating. I’ve always been the sort of person who throws themselves into things. But I didn’t know about Shakespeare or Stanislavski, and when I went to Rada there were lots of Oxbridge graduates there, and I found that really intimidating. Then I moved in with my friend who went to Oxford, one of the cleverest women I know, and she said, ‘I just wish I could switch my brain off and [act more instinctively] sometimes.’ Everybody had their insecurities, wherever they came from.”

You couldn’t guess her background from her accent, which is as plummy and English as a warm crumble. Stephen Frears, who directed Tamara Drewe, sent Arterton to a vocal coach, as if she were Eliza Doolittle, to tone down her Kentish twang. “When I was at Rada they did say I should change it – it wasn’t going to do me any favours, is what one particular teacher told me. And so I did, but now it’s just found its own ‘estuarine’ sound. It’s funny because people do judge you by how you talk. It comes and goes. If I go back home, or I’m with my dad for 10 minutes, it comes back. If I have a drink it comes back. My sister has such a broad accent, it’s like, ‘alriiiight baaaabe’. I remember my family getting all ‘why are you talking like that?’”

Arterton, who got married last year, is close to her family and seems grounded, unfazed by the attention she gets. Does she ever feel too separated from her family and old friends’ experiences? No, she says, adding that she always brings her family on set, takes them to premieres and on trips. “We do get these amazing perks with our jobs, like going to Paris and staying in a nice hotel. It’s nice to bring my family to those kind of things because they are like, ‘woah!’” She acts this out, shouting the word and throwing her arms wide. “But I still go into a hotel room and I’m like, ‘wow!’ and I go round opening all the drawers, looking at the minibar. I don’t take any of this for granted.”

Gemma Arterton visited Brazil with Sky Rainforest Rescue. An exhibition with photographs from her trip is at Somerset House, London WC2 until 4 Dec. Details: sky.com/rainforestrescue

Source

10 minutes with Gemma Arterton — The face of G Star Raw on toughening up for a fairy tale.

GALLERY LINK:
- Scans: ES Magazine (UK) – September 16, 2011, thanks to Lorna

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

But Gemma Arterton decided an exhibition highlighting the plight of the Amazonian rainforest would be the perfect time to show off Princess Leia look.

The actress looked just like the Star Wars heroine as she arrived at Somerset House in central London tonight for the Sky Rainforest Rescue Exhibition.

Gemma, 25, looked stunning in her long white halterneck dress with a gold chain that connected the waist to the back of the neck.

And while her long dark hair wasn’t swept into buns on the side of her head, it was plaited back and looked very similar to the Princess, who was played by Carrie Fisher from 1977 to 1983.

Gemma was the guest of honour at the exhibition which was set up by Sky and the World Wide Fund for Nature, or the WFF, to raise awareness about deforestation of the rainforest.

The photos were taken by award-winning photographers Sebastião Salgado and Per Anders Pettersson to document the plight of the South American jungle.

The free exhibition features unseen images of the level of devastation caused by deforestation and shows the progress being made through Sky Rainforest Rescue, which sees Sky and WWF working closely with the Acre State Government to protect this precious part of the world.

Photos used in the exhibition come from Salgado’s photo essay, ‘Genesis’, while Pettersson’s images document a recent trip to Acre in Brazil with Arterton.

Speaking about her trip, she said: ‘It’s easy to deforest, it’s quick money, so this is about giving people other means to make a living by using the rainforest.

‘They love the forest they live in and don’t want to chop it down but they’re so poor they often don’t have a choice. They’ve been changing the way they live as part of the campaign.’

Pettersson added: ‘Some of the images will help visitors understand the deforestation first hand. Others show the reality of life in the poor communities of the region, and some of the innovative solutions to deforestation that WWF and Sky are using.

‘My work is normally from Africa so this was an opportunity to point my camera in another part of the world.’

And he sung his famous travelling companion’s praises and remarked on her singing voice, saying: ‘I have worked with many celebrities before and I can only say that the experience was absolutely a pleasure. She is genuinely interested in the cause and she has a remarkable warm way of interacting with people.

‘We hiked together for hours and she never complained. We had a lot of work to do but we also had a lot of fun during the trip. And she is a great singer!’

* ‘Amazon‘ opens at Somerset House on November 2 and runs until December 4.

Source

The Art of Gemma — I’ve finally scanned and added to our gallery an Australian magazine that I’ve had for awhile.

GALLERY LINK:
- Scans: OK!USA (Australia) – May 3, 2010

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

The free exhibition features unseen images of the Amazon’s pristine habitats, from Salgado’s photo essay, ‘Genesis’, while Pettersson’s images document a recent trip to Acre with actress Gemma Arterton. Together they highlight what’s at stake if we don’t take action to preserve this spectacular part of the world.

Below, Per-Anders Pettersson tells you all you need to know about ‘AMAZON’, and what you didn’t know about Gemma Arterton’s hidden talent…

What’s this exhibition all about? “It’s about highlighting the plight of the Amazon rainforest, and it gives insight into progress made by Sky Rainforest Rescue to protect this amazing and fragile part of the world.”

What can visitors expect to experience? “Some of the images will help visitors understand the deforestation first hand. Others show the reality of life in the poor communities of the region, and some of the innovative solutions to deforestation that WWF and Sky are using.”

What impact do you hope your work will have? “I hope it will further highlight this issue and lead many people to get involved in this cause. Somerset House will be a fantastic venue to attract a large amount of people. My work is normally from Africa so this was an opportunity to point my camera in another part of the world.”

What’s it like working with Gemma Arterton? “Gemma was great! I have worked with many celebrities before and I can only say that the experience was absolutely a pleasure. She is genuinely interested in the cause and she has a remarkable warm way of interacting with people. We hiked together for hours and she never complained. We had a lot of work to do but we also had a lot of fun during the trip. And she is a great singer!!”

Your best memory from the trip to Acre? “Although visiting remote villages and projects was amazing, the most rewarding and powerful was flying over the vast landscape. Flying and shooting images as the sun rises – an absolutely unforgettable experience. It’s surely one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been to in the world.”

‘AMAZON’ is free and open to the public from 2 November to 4 December at Somerset House in London.

Source

Gemma Arterton talks to the Metro about wanting to spread her acting wings and take on less commercial roles as she aims to rid herself of being known as ‘that girl from Bond’, and why working in a pub was her best first job.

What did you get up to in Brazil?

It’s an initiative between Sky and the WWF to raise awareness of deforestation and to save a billion trees in three years. I went to the state of Acre. There’s a road being built and usually loggers get in and it leads to deforestation. It’s easy to deforest, it’s quick money, so this is about giving people other means to make a living by using the rainforest. They love the forest they live in and don’t want to chop it down but they’re so poor they often don’t have a choice. They’ve been changing the way they live as part of the campaign.

What did you see?

We met rubber tappers who trek for 90 minutes into the forest each day. They’ve done it all their lives. They collect the rubber and sell it to companies. One is an ethical trainer company. They’d never seen the finished products before. We showed them a pair of shoes made from their rubber – it was mind-blowing for them. It makes you think about when we get up and say: ‘I can’t be arsed to go to work.’ They go through all that.

What was going to Rada like?

Quite intimidating. I was 18 and there were lots of Oxford and Cambridge graduates and I felt I didn’t know what I was talking about. After a year of being there, I threw myself into it. It’s good to have that foundation. You have three years to try out stuff and be crap. If you’re doing a 100-seater in the West End, you need training or you can’t talk to the back row.

What role has had the biggest impact on your career?

Alice Creed [in the 2009 movie The Disappearance Of Alice Creed]. My career went down this commercial road for a while and I didn’t feel comfortable with it. Alice Creed flipped everything on its head and people stopped thinking of me as just ‘that girl from Bond’.

Are you trying to avoid commercial films?

I’m in a quandary because one film is being quite persistent but I keep saying no because it’s so commercial. It means you don’t have to worry about earning money for the rest of the year so you can go off and do theatre or help get smaller scripts made.

There are so many great scripts that can’t get made because they don’t have the money and then massive films that are made that are rubbish. It would be silly to rule out commercial films because they can be great fun but I have to think seriously before saying yes now because it’s a large portion of the year – not just making the film but doing three months of press and publicity. I like doing three months of theatre and then it’s all done.

You’re not in a hurry to play a superhero then?

No but I did a movie this year called Hansel And Gretel, which is quite flashy but the story is very indie. I do a lot of research now into who I’ll be working with and think carefully – which is a luxury. At first, you’re just grateful people want to work with you and you can pay off your student loan.

What’s the worst career advice you’ve had?

An actor once told me to stop being nice because then people don’t respect you. You get told to do lots of rubbish by people who think they know better than you – especially if you’re a woman.

What’s the worst job you’ve had?

I worked in a clothes shop in central London where women would flash their money at me and I’d have to dress them. I had to wear heels and wasn’t allowed to sit down all day. I worked in a pub in the evening, which was much more fun. If I were out of work I’d definitely work in a pub again – at least you can have a laugh.

By Andrew Williams

Sky Rainforest Rescue’s Amazon exhibition opens at Somerset House on November 2. www.sky.com/rainforestrescue

Source

The British actress played Agent Strawberry Fields, who died after saving the suave spy, and Gemma had such a great experience making the movie she wishes she could work on the new film – which will be directed by Sam Mendes.

She said: ‘They’re just starting to make the next one and I’m so jealous that I died in the movie I was in because I’d love to do it again, it was so much fun. You get to travel to all of these exotic locations, treated well, it’s everything you imagined filmmaking and how glamorous it can be.’

While Gemma loves having the opportunity to work on blockbusters, she says she didn’t become an actress for fame and fortune.

She explained to UK TV show ‘The Alan Titchmarsh Show’: ‘I trained in theatre and that’s always what I imagined I’d do, if you decide to be an actor you don’t think you’re ever going to be in movies because it’s so hard and I was prepared for lots of unemployment and waitressing and trying to make ends meet.’

Source