Toronto — She’s appeared in two wide-release films this year. One earned $493 million worldwide. The other made $335 million.

She’s all of 24 years old.

Meet Gemma Arterton, possibly the biggest star you’ve never heard of.

She’s been on a career rocket ship of sorts for the past three years after her graduation from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

“It’s been quite bizarre. I think I’ve done 11 films, four TV jobs and two plays in three years,” she says. “Only three of those, four maybe, are notable. But it’s all been kind of a massive learning curve for me.”

Now she’s standing center, playing the title character in “Tamara Drewe,” a very different film from “Clash of the Titans” and “Prince of Persia,” the blockbusters in which she starred earlier this year.

Directed by Stephen Frears (“The Queen”), “Tamara Drewe” is a sort of randy British romp of a comedy with some serious desperation at its core. Arterton plays a star TV reporter who returns to the village of her youth. But when she was young she had a bulbous nose; now she’s had surgery and she’s stunningly beautiful.

“She’s very good at playing the successful, confident, promiscuous temptress. I actually know lots of people like that myself,” Arterton says, sitting in a restaurant during the Toronto International Film Festival this past September.

“There must be a reason they feel the need to flaunt themselves,” Arterton says. “She’s still the big-nosed teenager inside.”

The word “statuesque” could have been invented for Arterton; although she speaks very casually, “I don’t like to bang on about it,” she says when referring to all the publicity she’s had to do this year.

She first caught the public’s eye in 2008 when she landed the choice role of Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film “Quantum of Solace.” Then last year she impressed many critics with a fierce performance in the small British indie “The Disappearance of Alice Creed.”

Playing a kidnap victim, she’s bound naked and terrified through much of the film. Even though it played few theaters, it still had an impact on her career.

“I did ‘Alice Creed’ because I had to get it out of my system. I needed to see if I could do that kind of work, needed to challenge everybody’s perceptions of what I could do as an actor,” she says.

“I’ve gotten quite a lot of job offers on the back of that alone, and not on any of the others,” she says. “Because people in the industry don’t tend to watch blockbusters; they watch the small films.”

Arterton says she isn’t trying to balance big-budget and low-budget films. Up to now she’s just been taking whatever comes along.

“I sort of started my career saying yes to everything because I thought I’d never work. A film career, I thought I’d never have one,” she says.

“Blockbusters are fun — I mean you get to go to these amazing places and wear wonderful costumes and prance about,” Arterton says. “But it’s not challenging and it doesn’t really get me going. I’ve been saying no a lot recently,” she admits. “I just want to do stuff that I’m proud of.”

Still, her big budget days aren’t over. She’s committed to a “Clash” sequel and she’s signed on as the female lead for “Men in Black III.”

What does she get out of acting?

“I like finding out about people and working out why people do things differently to how I would do them, and getting into their shoes and walking about,” Arterton says.

“You learn to do things in your life that you might not have done, like ride a horse or play a piano or whatever it is you have to do,” she says. “I love that it’s always a challenge.”

Additional Facts
Gemma Christina Arterton

Born: Jan. 12, 1986, in Gravesend, Kent, England
Inspiration: Decided to become an actress at age 16 after seeing “Dancer in the Dark,” starring Bjork
Jobs: Worked as a makeup sales clerk while attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Family: Married Stefano Catelli, a sales manager, in a secret hilltop ceremony in the village of Zuheros in Spain on June 6
Up next: “Men in Black III,” 2012

Tom Long
Detroit News Film Critic

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