The very pale, very interesting Gemma Arterton, leading lady in two of this year’s blockbusters, gives a master class in how to wear diamonds—mostly white, with a hint of yellow, a blush of pink.

By Steve King

Contrasts? Gemma Arterton can tell you a thing or two about contrasts. The girl from Gravesend graduated from R.A.D.A., the most prestigious classical drama academy in the land, only to go straight back to school in St. Trinian’s. She wowed critics in Ibsen’s The Master Builder at the Almeida, then squeezed into a pair of microscopic denim hot pants for Tamara Drewe. Just a couple of weeks before she achieved global exposure—literally and figuratively—as Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace, she had also appeared in the lead role in the BBC’s somber-toned adaptation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

Of her experience as a Bond girl, incidentally, she has nothing but good things to say—not least that it enabled her to buy five Colombian emeralds while she was on location in South America. She still likes to buy a piece of jewelry whenever she makes a film abroad. “Jewelry is like treasure,” she says. “Much more fun than houses or furniture.”

The contrasts keep coming. Lately there’s been Unfinished Song, a bittersweet ensemble piece in which she stars alongside Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave, and Byzantium, a lush, louche vampire yarn directed by Neil Jordan; next up is Runner, Runner, a pacey thriller with Ben Affleck. At the mere mention of Terence Stamp’s name, she rocks back and shakes her hair loose and beams like a gospel singer mid-hallelujah. I ask whether he is as charismatic off the screen as he is on it, but she has answered the question before the words are out of my mouth. “Terence! Yes! Terence! Well, at first I wasn’t sure how things would go. I thought it could be hard. Because he has a reputation for being very . . . particular. But in fact it was like the relationship of our characters in the film—it softened, we developed a rapport, we became friends. We got along brilliantly. We lived opposite each other while we were filming and we’d share organic food. ‘Here, have some of my delicious spelt! Here, have some of my lovely goat’s cheese!’” But apparently she drew the line at: “Here, have some of my yummy Colombian emeralds!”

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