Gemma Arterton

Gemma Christina Arterton

2 February 1986

An English actress. At age 16, Arterton left school to attend the Miskin Theatre School in Dartford. She then received a full government grant to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, although she said in 2008 that she "got up to her eyes in debt with a student loan". She graduated from RADA in 2008. Arterton won her first professional role in Stephen Poliakoff's "Capturing Mary", while she was still at drama school. Similarly, she made her stage debut as Rosaline in Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" at the Globe Theatre, London in July 2007 before graduating later that year. She made her film debut in "St Trinian's" (2007) as Head Girl Kelly.

In 2008, she appeared in the James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace". Chosen from around 1,500 candidates, Arterton plays Bond Girl Strawberry Fields, in what is described as a "nice-sized role". On her character, Arterton describes Strawberry Fields as "the thinking man's crumpet". The same year, she played the eponymous protagonist in the BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". Also in 2008, she played the role of Elizabeth Bennet in the ITV serial, "Lost in Austen". Her most controversial role to date was in the 2009 film, "The Disappearance of Alice Creed", in which her character is kidnapped and abused in several graphic nude scenes.

Arterton is the face of Avon's Bond Girl 007 fragrance, which launched in October 2008. Having already started in a series of advertisements for Avon, Arterton in May 2008 requested a role opposite model Kate Moss for Rimmel, but was blocked on contractual terms under her Avon contract.

As actress

• St Trinian's (2007)
• Capturing Mary (2007)
• Lost in Austen Elizabeth Bennet (2008)
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles (2008)
• Three and Out (2008)
• RocknRolla (2008)
• Quantum of Solace (2008)
• The Boat That Rocked (2009)
• St. Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009)
• Clash of the Titans Io (2010)
• The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2010)
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
• Tamara Drewe (2010)
• Song for Marion (2012)
• Byzantium (2012)
• Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
• Runner Runner (2013)
• Inside No. 9 (2014)
• Gemma Bovery (2014)
• The Voices (2015)
• Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (2016)
• Their Finest (2016)
• The History of Love (2016)
• The Girl With All the Gifts (2016)
• Orpheline (2016)
• 100 Streets (2017)
• Watership Down (2017)

Quotations

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I always thought I was going to end up an old spinster, with my cats and fur coats.

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My mother, she had a very good attitude toward money. I'm very grateful for the fact that we had to learn to save. I used to get like 50 pence a week, and I'd save it for like five months. And then I'd spend it on Christmas presents. I'd save up like eight pounds. It's nothing, but we did that.

* * *

I was quite naughty at school.

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I'm always surprised at what I actually end up doing because I don't have a strategy or a game plan, especially now that I'm making my own choices.

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I don't want to be about the way I look - my body, my hair, my makeup, all those boring things.

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I love strange things; my favorite movies are weird, eclectic, and intriguing.

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I was born with lots of deformities.

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I'm always listening to music; I can't live without it.

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My family are very down-to-earth people. We are not showbizzy at all.

* * *

Never in my short career, I've never had that experience where I wasn't sure if I was acting or if it was real.

* * *

I wouldn't change a thing in my own life, but I'd like to go back in time anyway though, just to some sort of eras that I wish I'd lived in - like the '60s. I'd love to have been in London in the '60s, partying away.

* * *

Music is my biggest passion aside from anything else.

* * *

I actually had a cockney accent before I went to drama school. It's softened up a bit.

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I've done about four deaths in films now, and I think it's quite good because then it's sort of a memorable moment in the film.

* * *

It's interesting for me to always make myself look very different.

* * *

My family was never cultural in that we never went to see plays, my mum wasn't very into films.

* * *

It's difficult for a young girl like me. Because there's a certain time for young actresses, which is like a really juicy period when all the parts are love interests and young heroines. Of course, there's always work for men whatever age they are.

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