The Disappearance of Alice Creed is not the most obvious film that one would expect Gemma Arterton to pick after her roles in blockbusters like Quantum of Solace and Clash of the Titans.

The low-budget thriller, shot entirely on the Isle of Man, has only three characters and most of the action takes place within two rooms.

Arterton plays a millionaire’s daughter who is kidnapped and kept bound and gagged in an apartment that has been converted into a prison cell.

In the opening minutes, Arterton is stripped and handcuffed to a bed, with a hood over her head. In one scene, her character has to urinate into bottle while still tied up.

It’s a role Arterton describes as a “10” on the scale of acting challenges.

(…)

The nudity, Gemma Arterton gagged and bound – were those daunting scenes for a first-time director?

When you write a script, you don’t really think about the making of it – you’re just in the story. And then you start thinking ‘oh God, I’m going to have to film this!’

When we had the cast on board I could talk to them about how we were going to shoot it. They very much became collaborators rather than pawns to be moved around.

I was a bit daunted in casting the role of Alice because I didn’t know why anyone would want to do it – it is a tough, very intense role.

So when Gemma walked in and read the script and loved it, it was an absolute gift.

Did Gemma go with it from the word go? Did any scenes get toned down?

Oh yes, she threw herself at it. I never wanted it to feel like an exploitation movie. I didn’t want to linger on anything any longer than I had to.

The way we’ve done it is quite stylistic, not gritty realism – which would have been even more intense. No, we didn’t tone anything down at all.

Gemma and Martin and Eddie have all worked with experienced directors. How was it working with them?

It was my first feature, so I learnt a lot from all of them.

I was slightly daunted by working with Eddie because he’d worked with Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann, but he’s a very professional actor and he had a lot of questions and I had all the answers.

If you’re a director who knows what he wants and you’ve got actors who are very good, you have a good working relationship.

Source