I remember vividly the first time I saw Gemma Arterton on stage, early 2007. It was not a great play, in a dingy basement studio at drama school—the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art—and I had missed half a dinner party to be there, so I was quite grumpy. Gemma then walked on stage and shone out.

At the time, I was casting this British comedy called “St. Trinians,” with Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, and Russell Brand. The actress we had cast to play the lead girl had just dropped out, and I went from feeling awful about that to being literally thrilled by the opportunity to cast someone completely fresh and new.

Gemma did brilliantly in her auditions, held her own at a fairly intimidating table reading with Rupert Everett, and—with a little persuasion of the director and producer that casting a complete unknown as their leading lady was a good idea—she got the part. From the first day I met her, through those first auditions, and now with all the great and well-deserved success that she has had, Gemma has always been one of the most delightful, funny, charming, honest, and ballsy girls I have ever had the pleasure of spending time with. I absolutely adore her and love the fact she is doing so well.

Lucy Bevan got her first job, as a runner, by literally knocking on doors in Soho, London. She then became assistant to producer Sarah Radclyffe when Radclyffe made Tim Roth’s directorial debut, “The War Zone.” After a few years, Bevan decided her heart lay in the casting process. She worked for Mary Selway for four years, calling it “the finest training I could have wished for.” Bevan’s first film was “Chromophobia,” for Martha Fiennes, followed by “The Duchess,” the “St. Trinians” movies, and “An Education.” Recently she contributed to casting on “Pirates of the Caribbean 4.”

Source

Gemma Arterton simply wowed on the red carpet for her film Clash of the Titans in Leicester Square last night. Showing off her fabulous figure in a bodycon dress by Gucci, Gemma teamed her LBD with a pair of ferocious black platforms.

GALLERY LINKS:
- The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) > Related Clippings: The Sun (UK) – March 19, 2010
- Scans: Sunday Mail (UK) – March 28, 2010
- Scans: Clippings From 2010
- Clash of the Titans (2010): Production Stills
- St. Trinian’s (2007): Production Stills
- Public Events: “Clash Of The Titans” – World Premiere – After Party
- Scans: InStyle (UK) – May 2010 (preview only)

Thanks to Lorna for the scans!

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

GALLERY LINKS:
- Candids: February 1, 2010
- Candids: February 2, 2010
- St. Trinian’s (2007) > Related Clippings: Empire (UK) – November 2007

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

I’ve scanned the German DVD cover of St. Trinian’s and added five more pics from the Martin Creed & Calvin Klein party in 2007.

GALLERY LINKS:
- St. Trinian’s (2007): Posters & Covers
- Public Events: Martin Creed & Calvin Klein Spring/Summer ‘08 Party

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

GALLERY LINKS:
- Photoshoots: Portrait Session (October 2009)
- St Trinian’s (2007): Website

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

The first images from the “St Trinian’s 2″ World Premiere in London tonight. We’ll surely add more soon.
We’ve also added a few stragglers from the BIFAs and Posters & Wallpapers from the first “St Trinian’s” movie.

GALLERY LINKS:
- Public Events: “St Trinian’s 2: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold” World Premiere
- Public Events: The British Independent Film Awards
- St. Trinian’s (2007): Posters & Covers
- St. Trinian’s (2007): Wallpapers

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

A couple more pics from the London ‘Alice Creed’ premiere, and two stills from 2007’s St. Trinian’s.

GALLERY LINKS:
- Events: The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival: “The Disappearance Of Alice Creed” – Screening
- St. Trinian’s (2007): Production Stills

The St. Trinian’s franchise has a long history in British pop culture. In the 1940s, illustrator Ronald Searle created the St. Trinian’s cartoon series about a fictional girls’ school constantly teetering on the edge of anarchy. Those cartoons became celebrated films in the 1950s, starting with The Belles of St. Trinian’s in 1954. Comic actor Alistair Sim played the school headmistress Miss Fritton (in full drag) and her brother Clarence.

I’ve been adding many HQ on-set photos from the first St. Trinian’s film lately and today was no exception.

Last but not least, please welcome Harry Lloyd Source, Sarika’s (who used to run Gemma Online) new fansite and our newest affiliate.

GALLERY LINKS:
- St. Trinian’s (2007): On The Set (Berkshire, England) – April 15, 2007
- St. Trinian’s (2007): On The Set (Hertfordshire, England) – April 21, 2007

GALLERY LINKS:
- Scans: Chi (Italy) – October 22, 2008
- Scans: Clippings From 2009 (thanks to Lorna)
- St. Trinian’s (2007): On The Set (London, England) – April 11, 2007
- Quantum of Solace (2008): Production Stills
- St Trinian’s II (2009): The Sun (UK) – August 11, 2009
- Events: World Charity Premiere of “Three and Out”

We’ll be adding more new old photos whenever it’s possible.

If you have anything that we don’t, please consider sharing it with us and other fans of Gemma. All you have to do is contacting us. Full credit will always be given.

GALLERY LINKS:
- St. Trinian’s (2007): On Set
- St. Trinian’s (2007): On The Set (London, England) – April 10, 2007
- St. Trinian’s (2007): On The Set (London, England) – April 11, 2007
- St. Trinian’s (2007): Wallpapers
- St. Trinian’s (2007): Posters & Covers
- The Boat That Rocked (2009): Production Stills
- Events: “Arcadia” Performance
- Events: Jameson Empire Awards 2009 – Arrivals
- Events: Jameson Empire Awards 2009 – Press Room
- Events: “The Boat That Rocked” World Premiere
- Events: The Brit Awards 2009 – War Child/O2 After Party
- Events: War Child presents: The Killers & Coldplay
- St Trinian’s II (2009): Daily Star (UK) – July 28, 2009
- St Trinian’s II (2009): Daily Mail (UK) – August 7, 2009

Cinematical has just received this exclusive final USA one-sheet for St.Trinian’s, the British comedy that boasts a whole mixture of Brit talent from Talulah Riley and Gemma Arterton to Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Russell Brand, and Lena Headey.

St. Trinian’s was released a few years ago in the UK, but America will finally get to see the bad girls in action stateside when it hits theaters on August 28.

GALLERY LINK:
- St. Trinian’s (2007): Posters & Covers

Time for some vintage (read 2007) St. Trinian’s today!

GALLERY LINK:
- Scans: Glamour (UK) – November 2007

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has acquired U.S. video and TV rights to the U.K. hit comedy “St. Trinian’s” from independent theatrical distributor and foreign sales agent NeoClassics Films.

NeoClassics, which acquired U.S. rights to “St. Trinian’s” from Ealing Studios, will distribute the film theatrically in the U.S. this summer.

The remake of the 1950s Ealing classic “The Belles of St. Trinian’s” grossed more than $25 million in its U.K. theatrical run.

Directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson and starring Colin Firth and Rupert Everett, “St. Trinian’s” tells the twisted story of a dysfunctional British girls’ boarding school and its equally twisted parents, teachers and administrators.

Rounding out the cast are Russell Brand, Gemma Arterton, Lena Headey, Caterina Murino and Stephen Fry.

Ealing Studios is set to produce a sequel this summer, “St. Trinian’s II: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold.”

Source: Variety

GALLERY LINKS:
- St. Trinian’s: DVD Screencaptures – The Official School Diary
- St. Trinian’s: DVD Screencaptures – Deleted Scenes

New HQs from the Brit Awards 2009 – War Child/O2 After Party were also added to our gallery.

GALLERY LINKS:
- The Boat That Rocked: Trailer B Captures
- The Boat That Rocked: Trailer D Captures
- St. Trinian’s: Production Stills
- St. Trinian’s: Posters & Covers

I’ve also added more photos from the Baftas. Click here for the latest uploads.

Episode One is available for online viewing from January 5 to January 19, 2009.

Episode Two (which means the third and fourth episodes that aired in the UK combined) airs next Sunday.

PBS.org now has a website of sorts up for Tess as well.

While you’re at it, why not take the time to visit Hans Matheson Online (Alec D’Urberville) and Eddie Redmayne Online (Angel Clare), two wonderful fansites dedicated to Gemma’s co-stars in the series?

Last but not least, attention UK visitors: St Trinian’s will be showing on Sky Movies Premiere on Satuday, Jan. 10 at 8pm.

The 22-year-old Briton, who is filming her next blockbuster Prince Of Persia, hopes to star in a sequel to St Trinian’s, the boarding-school movie that launched her career.

‘There is talk of a St Trinian’s 2 and I will definitely do it,’ Gemma told the Mail Online.

‘It was my first big film and I will never forget that. I hope it goes ahead as I had such a good time making the first one.’

The moment Gemma Arterton heard she’d be the new Bond girl is ingrained on her mind for ever. She was on a boat, just off the coast of Gibraltar, filming the comedy Three and Out with Mackenzie Crook. Dressed in full scuba-diving gear – what else would a prospective Bond girl be wearing? – Arterton answered her mobile phone to her agent, who immediately began humming the James Bond theme down the line; the role of Agent Fields in the 22nd 007 film, Quantum of Solace, was hers. So moved was Crook, he shed a tear for his co-star and uttered, “This is such a big moment in your life.”

Crook’s assessment has not been lost on the 22-year-old. Raised “in a house of women”, as she calls it, Bond was not a big influence on her childhood, yet she’s well aware of what it means. “It’s such an institution in Britain, and such an iconic thing to be involved in,” she says. “I’m so proud of it.” At 5ft 7in, with pale skin and a chirpy estuarine accent, she may not be typical Bond girl material. What’s more, how many Bond girls can claim to have been born with six fingers – on each hand? “It’s my little oddity that I’m really proud of,” she says. There’s something devil-may-care about her attitude that makes her perfect casting.

The last time I met Arterton was 18 months ago, when she had come to Cannes to promote St Trinian’s, the garish update of the film series in which she played the head girl of an anarchic private school. A total unknown, she was still in full costume after a promotional photo-shoot: black bob, crisp white blouse, pencil skirt, seamed stockings and killer high-heels. While she might’ve been looking “a little bit dominatrixy”, there was still a fresh-faced innocence to the girl who had left drama school to come to Cannes. “This is my first feature film, so it’s quite exciting,” she said, breathlessly. “The casting director said to me, ‘You don’t know what’s hit you yet.’ And I said, ‘No I don’t!’”

Since then, her rise in the industry has been nothing short of staggering. Even before Quantum of Solace hits the screens, Arterton has already this autumn appeared in Guy Ritchie’s gangster flick RocknRolla, and taken key roles in two primetime television dramas, Lost In Austen and Tess of the d’Urbervilles. With a forthcoming cameo in Richard Curtis’s pirate-radio comedy The Boat That Rocked, you’d think her life would be unmanageable by now. “It’s been kind of good,” she reflects. “I’ve been working, working, working, and not had time to do anything else. I don’t go out and go to parties and do all of that. That’s when you start feeling the change … I haven’t had the opportunity to really be around any fuss, so I don’t feel that different – just a bit more tired.”

Little wonder she’s feeling the strain. When we catch up again, Arterton has just finished a day’s filming at Pinewood Studios and is planning a less-than-glamorous evening at her gym in Muswell Hill. She’s midway through shooting Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a huge-scale adaptation of the popular Arabian Nights-style video game that will make Quantum of Solace look like a no-budget short.

So far, her anonymity has been preserved because she’s barely recognisable from one role to the next. As Thomas Hardy’s fated heroine Tess, she has chestnut-brown locks down to her waist; for Bond, she is a redhead. And Prince of Persia has forced her to darken her hair from its natural brunette colouring. “The other day, we were looking at pictures of my career so far – photo-shoots and things like that – and I wouldn’t even recognise myself! That’s handy because people don’t recognise you, which is really nice for me, as I like doing normal things.”

Quantum of Solace is set to change all that. Pairing her with Daniel Craig, now in full command of James Bond in what is his second outing, Arterton can claim her casting was destiny. “I was in the car on the way to the audition and the Bond theme tune ‘Nobody Does It Better’ came on the radio,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘This is a sign!’” Playing Agent Fields, Bond’s MI6 contact in Bolivia when he arrives to investigate a mysterious group called Quantum, she claims that the film is set to continue the reinvention of the franchise that 2006’s Casino Royale began. “It’s a lot more – I hate to say edgy but it is more edgy. It’s dirty and ragged. This one’s a desert movie with loads of scummy places. It’s not as crisp and slick.”

There’s no question, Arterton brims with the confidence of youth. You might even call her fearless. “I remember on my first day, everyone saying to me, ‘Are you nervous? Are you nervous?’ And I was going, ‘Yeah, I suppose so.’ But I wasn’t. If Daniel had been wearing a tux that day, or said one of his catchphrases, I might’ve felt intimidated but he didn’t.” Still, she had to kiss Craig on that first day, “another surreal moment in my life” as she puts it. “At the time I can remember thinking: ‘What on Earth is going on? This is insane! If I phoned up my mates now they would be killing themselves laughing.’”

Curiously, she compares her character to both Bond’s lovelorn secretary Miss Moneypenny and Rosaline, the similarly “haughty” character she played in a production of Love’s Labour’s Lost at The Globe that first convinced the Bond casting directors to offer her an audition.

“With the Bond films, the women are so unobtainable to a normal guy. I wanted to make her someone you could go down the pub with,” she says. “She’s not particularly hot. She’s just this girl that ends up sleeping with Bond. It’s not like she’s really saucy or anything. She’s normal looking and not glamorous. But it is funny – people always say, ‘Ah, you’re the Bond girl, you’re the Bond girl’, and I don’t feel like one at all!”

Perhaps this is just as well, given the so-called “curse of the Bond girl” that has often called time on the careers of those who play them. Arterton appears to have taken the whole experience in her stride, which includes acting opposite the series’ renowned regulars. “I probably should get a bit more star-struck but I never do,” she says. “I think it’s because I’ve got my head in the clouds. I just turn up and do it. I remember the day Judi Dench [who plays MI6 chief M] was on set. I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s Judi Dench and now I’m going to act with her.’ I didn’t get that worried about it. I probably should get really nervous but I just enjoy working.”

Whatever Bond does for her, Prince of Persia is liable to do even more. Starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, she plays the Arabian princess Tamina in a sixth-century adventure she describes as “Indiana Jones meets Gladiator“. Arterton represents yet another astute casting choice by the über-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who previously gave Keira Knightley her international breakthrough when he put her in Pirates of the Caribbean. How does she feel about the inevitable comparisons? “Well, Keira has done incredibly well,” she says, carefully. “I’d love to get the parts that she gets. If I’m being compared with her, who knows…?” She pauses for a second as a thought occurs. “It’s funny,” she says. “Especially with girls, people always want to put them in little brackets. I don’t belong in the same bracket as Keira. I’m completely different, from a very different background. I’m confident enough in my own ability to not worry about being compared with other people.”

Brought up on a Gravesend council estate, Arterton’s working-class roots – her father is a welder, her mother a cleaner – certainly differentiate her from Knightley. Raised with her younger sister Hannah, she went to a grammar school, which she left when she was 16. “I liked learning but I hated being confined in a space and being talked at,” she recalls. “That’s why I left.” She didn’t read much. “I was quite lazy,” she says. “I was too busy going ‘Argh!’ and being silly.” In truth, she sounds like a St Trinian’s misfit. “I was quite naughty at school,” she grins.

After her parents divorced, she and her sister remained with their mother. “She encouraged independence in us,” notes Arterton. “I think that’s really brilliant. She never tried to control us, and we’ve both ended up being really successful in what we wanted to do. She’s very free and creative, and it kind of rubs off.” Her mother’s side of the family all have “this arty-punk streak”, she says. “Her uncle was [the new-wave singer] Wreckless Eric so it’s all trickled into us. There’s something about being a punk rocker that stays with you even when you’re older.”

If punk flows through her veins, so does a restless desire to succeed. After leaving school, where she had first started acting, she went on to a sixth-form college to study the discipline more seriously. From there, she won a place at Rada but it didn’t stop there. Winning her first role, on the TV show Capturing Mary, while still a student, by the time she won the role in St Trinian’s there was little point in graduating. The industry was taking notice, as demonstrated when she took a cameo in RocknRolla. “We loved her,” says Guy Ritchie. “We thought she was class. She only came on set for a day, but we all thought there was something brewing there.”

While Arterton is well aware of the effect she has on men, if anything points to her potential, it’s that she appeals to women as well. Her TV work this autumn proves that. In the quirky Lost in Austen, she was charming as Pride and Prejudice’s heroine Elizabeth Bennett, who inadvertently swaps places with a modern girl, but it will be as Tess Durbeyfield that she will be long remembered.

She got the role during the middle of filming Quantum of Solace and literally jumped for joy, for this was her chance to prove she can really act. Understandably, she avoided watching Nastassja Kinski’s take on the character for the classic Roman Polanski film. “I wanted it to be my Tess,” she states, confidently. It’s clear this role meant more to her than anything she’s done to date. “I could not keep my mind off it,” she says. “I was really nervous. I put everything into it.”

Given her meteoric rise, I wonder how she’s managed to stay so down-to-earth. “All the people I hang around with are really grounded,” she answers. “Everyone wants me to be myself. I want to be myself. I feel sometimes that people think you’ve changed because you get picked up in cars or sent things, but they’re things you don’t ask for. They’re perks – and it’s easy to see how you could change, because you could get used to that. But I don’t want to and I don’t feel as if I have.”

If anything has been difficult for Arterton during the last year-and-a-half, it’s been finding time for love. “It’s hard maintaining relationships,” she says. “You have to have people who really understand you and your life, and trust you, and trust that you want to be with them and spend time with them – but you really can’t because you’re on the other side of the country.” This is the point that her real friends have “come out of the woodwork”, she’s discovered. With all the craziness that’s about to engulf her, she’ll need them more than ever.

Quantum of Solace opens on 31 October

Interview by James Mottram
Saturday, 18 October 2008

Source: The Independent