Actress Gemma Arterton spills on Ryan Reynolds and channeling her ‘inner activist’

By Shanee Edwards

British actress Gemma Arterton made a splash in 2013’s Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, opposite Jeremy Renner. Now she’s back with a film called The Voices, also starring Ryan Reynolds, which is an absurd, dark comedy you won’t want to miss.

The Voices is the story of Jerry (Ryan Reynolds), who goes off his meds and gets coerced into doing terrible things by his manipulative talking cat, Mr. Whiskers. We don’t want to give too much away, but if there’s ever been a laugh-out-loud comedy about a serial killer, this is it.

Gemma Arterton plays Fiona, one of Jerry’s coworkers, who meets a tragic fate at the hands of the seemingly sweet Jerry. For Arterton, the best comedy comes out of the darkest places.

“A lot of comedians are quite dark people. The script was really appealing to me because I’m not often considered a funny person or asked to do funny things, but I liked the absurdity of the whole thing.” Read More

By Erin Donnelly

It’s hard to speak about The Voices without ruining it for everyone. All you really need to know about the indie black comedy — in theaters and on demand now — is that it stars Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick, and Gemma Arterton; was directed by Marjane Satrapi of Persepolis fame; and will no doubt make you squeal with laughter and shriek in horror, probably at the same time.

Arterton — the British beauty best known for playing Bond Girl Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace — provides much of the film’s comic relief as Fiona, the foxy office accountant that Reynolds’ loner Jerry can’t resist. When she’s not dodging dates with Jerry, the British bombshell is leading conga lines and doing what just about any of us would kill to do: sing karaoke with Anna Kendrick.

Arterton spoke to us about that scene, why Reynolds is a sweetheart, and why she thinks Idris Elba would make an excellent Bond.

There’s a scene in which you and Anna Kendrick sing karaoke. What was it like singing beside Ms. Pitch Perfect?
“That was a really fun scene to shoot. Originally I wanted to sing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ because that’s what I always sing at karaoke, but they couldn’t get the rights. But, I think getting ‘Knock on Wood’ is pretty good. And, it was fun with Anna because we have such different physical types. She’s so tiny! She has such a great voice.” Read More

When considering a film, some actors might steer clear of a character that dies in the first few pages of a script. But not Gemma Arterton. When she read the script for the Marjane Satrapi directed flick, The Voices, she was eager to play Fiona, a woman who is decapitated in movie’s first moments. “I was really looking for something different,” the actor says of the film’s unconventional plot.

The film, which premiered at Sundance 2014, and stars Hollywood mainstay Ryan Reynolds, is about as weird as they come. We follow Jerry, a seemingly normal, likable factory worker who is hiding one fatal secret: His pets, and all the animals he encounters — the goldfish at the Asian restaurant, the deer he hits with his car, and the dog and cat he lives with — talk to him, and tell him to commit sinister crimes. One such crime being the murder of Fiona, the cute British girl at work he wants to date. And it isn’t a spoiler to say that Arterton’s character exists as a talking, severed head for the remainder of the film. “When I met Marjane, she said, ‘Who do you want to play? Do you want to play the head in the fridge or Anna Kendrick’s role?’ And I said, ‘No! I want to play the one that’s always in the fridge!’”

If it sounds cringe-worthy, it’s because it is. But the film utilizes a unique comedic perspective — like Ryan Reynolds voicing Mr. Whiskers, Bunny Monkey, and most of the animals that talk to him — to broach the topic of mental illness. “We like him, even when he’s done these terrible things,” Arterton says of Reynolds’ character. “It’s controversial, but it’s an exploration of mental illness. That’s what the point of the film is, and it’s quite beautiful. But it’s difficult to talk about it if people haven’t seen the film. People who read this interview may not understand, it’s a delicate subject.” Read More

A new UK promotional poster for The Voices has just been released (thanks to Empire) and it has been added to the gallery.

Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arterton, Anna Kendrick and Ella Smith perform Sing A Happy Song from the motion picture The Voices.

A woman who’s not satisfied with only one man and who doesn’t accept to stay a step back: that’s the protagonist of a mytical novel, and of the film that it inspired. But that’s also Miss Arterton, who lends her her body (and what a body!). Hollywood sexists, stay away!

“Men lose weight in order to win an Oscar, while women do it in order to get work.”

GALLERY LINK:
– Photo Gallery > Magazine Scans > Scans from 2015 > Vanity Fair (Italy) – February 4, 2015, thanks to Ivonne