From Arena (UK) - February 2008

Beautiful, fun-loving and not afraid to tell stories that make Russell Brand look stupid? The time is now for St Trinian's head girl Gemma Arterton

You may not recognise Gemma Arterton by name, but you probably recognise the face by now. Despite stiff competition for our attention (including Mischa Barton, Lily Cole and Bond girl Caterina Murino), this is the girl who dominated every single poster announcing the welcome comeback from London's iconic Ealing Studios: their 21st century take on schoolgirl classic, St Trinian's. Severe black bob, red lipstick, crumpled white shirt, towering gait. You remember...

Away from the misty-eyed jolly hockey sticks nostalgia, it's worth remembering that back in the 1950s, the original St Trinian's stories were seen as faintly dark and revolutionary. Conceived by illustrator Ronald Searle while interned in a Japanese POW camp, the film version was helmed by a cross-dressing Alastair Sim as the headmistress. Enid Blyton they were not.

And happily, the remake has not abandoned its roots: this is a quintessentially British tale of female rebellion which more than lives up to director Barnaby Thompson promise of "drugs, sex, tattoos and piercings" at Cannes last year. It's a solid cast, with schoolgirls Arterton, Cole and Barton backed up by Rupert Everett, Stephen Fry, Russell Brand and Girls Aloud.

Frankly, not a bad film to land for your first job out of drama school - especially the plum lead of the head girl Kelly - something Arterton heartily appreciates. The very mention of the fact prompts her to launch into her first ecstatic tirade of our interview:

"This is honestly all so exciting! My first ever audtion was only this time last year, and I originally read for the goody-two-shoes role. I was crap at the posh girl thing, because that's not me, and I was so convinced I hadn't got it. I was crying to everyone, getting on their nerves, then only the week before they started filming they phoned and I got it! I'm really looking forward to the release. It's going to be amazing."

In an age of gimlet-eyed ambition, where the acting progeny of pushy parents are thrust fully-groomed into the public eye, personality surgically removed via press-training seminars, Arterton is something of a surprise. Having graduated from RADA last March, and with just a single summer turn as Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe behind her, it's a pleasure to watch this welder's daughter from Gravesend visibly finding her feet as an actress.

Free clothes are still a novelty ("I've been offered Gucci to wear at the premiere. And Yves Saint-Laurent. Can you believe it?"). She still loves being recognised ("it's only happened once so far, which was at a Calvin Harris gig and this girl said, 'you're that one that was in Love's Labours Lost, aren't you'. So weird"). She still gets scared in the presence of stars ("We saw Girls Aloud coming in to do St Trinian's, and had to go and say hello. We were so geeky. I couldn't think of anything to say, you know, like, 'Ooh, are you going on tour soon?' They had no idea who I was").

When asked if she's the most successful girl in her class, she can't even say 'yes'. She just scrunches up the shoulders, grins like mad and nods bashfully.

All this is delivered in a voice halfway between Kent estuary and RADA-trained received pronounciation, a journey she's happy to acknowledge. "I'd love to play Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion because the story is so similar to mine. Not that I'm a right Cockney sparrow or anything, but I was a bit less refined a few years ago, ha ha!" In fact, with the harsh brunette bob from St Trinian's growing out, the bee-stung lips and the carefree attitude, there's a definite air of a more sophisticated young McCutcheon.

So tell us about the St Trinian's set. Oestrogen-fuelled mayhem? "It wasn't too bad. All the 'adults' were really helpful. Celia Imrie was always giving me advice, Lena Headey, Colin Firth. It was a real shame I didn't get to meet Stephen Fry, though. If you had a dinner party, you'd have him, wouldn't you? Be all intellectual."

The on-set professionalism contaminated the whole cast, it seems, even Channel 4's slimiest. "Funnily enough, Russell Brand was a real gent. We play kind of love interests, and everyone thought, 'Well, it's Russell Brand in St Trinian's, of course he's going to be mental' but he was very well-behaved, considering there were scantily-clad girls running all over the place. I got the feeling he preferred the older ladies to the younger ones. His eyes lit up when he met Caterina Murino. Obviously she had no idea who he was, 'Hello, who are you?' Ha ha ha!"

And what were you actually like at school? "I was into skate stuff, Limp Bizkit, Cypress Hill, those cockroach ones. Papa Roach! I actually went to a grammar school in Gravesend and everyone was intelligent, I was good really. I was the creative one, a bit lippy but not in a bad way, in a silly way. A girl got expelled for sniffing lighter fluid, that was the biggest hoo-hah."

Next up is a lead in drama 3 And Out alongside Mackenzie Crook and Imelda Staunton, and then it will be time for the St Trinian's halo-effect. And, as she says, "Once you've done a big film, more films come your way if you're good. Or even if you're not good. I've got so much stuff coming up, and one of them is incredible. I so want to tell you about it, but if I told you, I'd have to kill you."

How about EastEnders? You'd be great... "Oh yeah! If it came up, a little fun cameo. I'm sure my agent wouldn't like me saying that but hey. I tell my mum I'm doing all this stuff at the moment, but EastEnders would make her really happy. She'd absolutely love it."


Words Chris Mooney