The actor and producer on the joy of clowning around in her new comedy Funny Woman, how female solidarity has changed her professional life, and her top choice for a karaoke belter
Gemma Arterton, 37, was born in Gravesend and trained at Rada. Aged 21, she made her professional stage debut at Shakespeare’s Globe and her film debut in St Trinian’s. The following year, she landed the coveted role of Strawberry Fields in the Bond film Quantum of Solace. On TV, she has starred in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Black Narcissus; stage highlights include Made in Dagenham, Nell Gwynn and Saint Joan. She now produces and plays the lead role in Funny Woman, the TV adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl, about a beauty queen from Blackpool who moves to swinging 60s London to break into the comedy scene. Arterton lives in East Sussex with her husband,...
Gemma Arterton, 37, was born in Gravesend and trained at Rada. Aged 21, she made her professional stage debut at Shakespeare’s Globe and her film debut in St Trinian’s. The following year, she landed the coveted role of Strawberry Fields in the Bond film Quantum of Solace. On TV, she has starred in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Black Narcissus; stage highlights include Made in Dagenham, Nell Gwynn and Saint Joan. She now produces and plays the lead role in Funny Woman, the TV adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl, about a beauty queen from Blackpool who moves to swinging 60s London to break into the comedy scene. Arterton lives in East Sussex with her husband,...
- 3/19/2023
- by Michael Hogan
- The Guardian - Film News
On April 11, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard reported to a Fairfax, Virginia, courtroom for a long-awaited defamation trial that would air all the dirty laundry of their tumultuous marriage. The first three weeks of testimony have offered a cascade of eye-popping revelations, with Heard, through her attorneys, accusing Depp of sexual assault, while one of Depp’s bodyguards testified that he witnessed the actress throw a Red Bull can at her ex as well as punch him in the face. Also laid bare were Depp’s astronomical salaries (including 22.5 million...
- 5/3/2022
- by Tatiana Siegel
- Rollingstone.com
Black Narcissus and How to Build a Girl actress Gemma Arterton has spoken out about her time as a Bond girl in Quantum of Solace.
In a recent interview with the Sun, Arterton both defended and criticized her role as the 2008 Bond film’s Strawberry Fields. In Quantum of Solace, British Secret Service agent Strawberry Fields attempts to thwart James Bond(Daniel Craig) from accomplishing his mission, but loses guard to his suave personality and charm. Arterton’s character ultimately becomes the target of Bond’s enemies and dies smothered in crude oil.
Arterton, who has also appeared in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Clash of the Titans, said she took the Bond role out of much needed exposure and income.
“At the beginning of my career, I was poor as a church mouse and I was happy just to be able to work and earn a living,...
In a recent interview with the Sun, Arterton both defended and criticized her role as the 2008 Bond film’s Strawberry Fields. In Quantum of Solace, British Secret Service agent Strawberry Fields attempts to thwart James Bond(Daniel Craig) from accomplishing his mission, but loses guard to his suave personality and charm. Arterton’s character ultimately becomes the target of Bond’s enemies and dies smothered in crude oil.
Arterton, who has also appeared in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Clash of the Titans, said she took the Bond role out of much needed exposure and income.
“At the beginning of my career, I was poor as a church mouse and I was happy just to be able to work and earn a living,...
- 1/1/2021
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- Deadline Film + TV
Twelve years after she starred opposite Daniel Craig’s James Bond in “Quantum of Solace,” Gemma Arterton has expressed some regret over her breakout role.
In a new interview with The Sun, Arterton said she still gets flak for playing MI6 agent Strawberry Fields in the 2018 blockbuster.
“I still get criticism for accepting ‘Quantum Of Solace,’ but I was 21, I had a student loan, and you, know, it was a Bond film,” she said, adding that she was “poor as a church mouse” when she took the role.
“But as I got older I realized there was so much wrong with Bond women. Strawberry should have just said no, really, and worn flat shoes,” she continued, referencing the “Quantum of Solace” scene in which Bond seduces Strawberry in a hotel room.
This isn’t the first time Arterton has gotten candid about her Bond experience — earlier this year, she told...
In a new interview with The Sun, Arterton said she still gets flak for playing MI6 agent Strawberry Fields in the 2018 blockbuster.
“I still get criticism for accepting ‘Quantum Of Solace,’ but I was 21, I had a student loan, and you, know, it was a Bond film,” she said, adding that she was “poor as a church mouse” when she took the role.
“But as I got older I realized there was so much wrong with Bond women. Strawberry should have just said no, really, and worn flat shoes,” she continued, referencing the “Quantum of Solace” scene in which Bond seduces Strawberry in a hotel room.
This isn’t the first time Arterton has gotten candid about her Bond experience — earlier this year, she told...
- 12/29/2020
- by Umberto Gonzalez
- The Wrap
Any long-running franchise needs to constantly reinvent itself in order to remain relevant for modern audiences and avoid becoming stale, and that’s especially true in the case of the James Bond series, which has been going strong for almost 60 years but still sits at the forefront of popular culture.
Cinema’s most famous secret agent has been through multiple iterations, and you can guarantee that interest would have fizzled out a long time ago if Daniel Craig played the character the same way as Sean Connery, with each new actor to throw on the tux putting their own spin on 007, one that’s reflective of the times we live in.
Of course, one of the most famous tropes associated with the brand is that of the Bond Girl, which in most cases is a brief love interest that occupies the thankless task of being little more than eye candy.
Cinema’s most famous secret agent has been through multiple iterations, and you can guarantee that interest would have fizzled out a long time ago if Daniel Craig played the character the same way as Sean Connery, with each new actor to throw on the tux putting their own spin on 007, one that’s reflective of the times we live in.
Of course, one of the most famous tropes associated with the brand is that of the Bond Girl, which in most cases is a brief love interest that occupies the thankless task of being little more than eye candy.
- 12/29/2020
- by Scott Campbell
- We Got This Covered
There’s perhaps no genre Danny Boyle can’t work within. On the opposite spectrum from his darker works, Yesterday is a flawed yet mostly effective light and fluffy departure, examining stardom in a post-Beatles world in which fledging alt-rocker Jack Malik (Hamish Patel) become the vessel for spreading love, joy, and sonic harmony. While the film provides the kind of comfortable formulaic delight that screenwriter Richard Curtis has built his 40-year career on, it’s not destined to be an oft-rewatchable gem like so many of his previous efforts, such as Love Actually, Notting Hill, and Four Weddings and a Funeral–nor may it inspire younger viewers to revisit The Beatles catalog.
A survey of the greatest hits, it forgets what has made those hits so great despite cheeky references to Yellow Submarine and A Hard Day’s Night. If good lyrics were simply enough, many a bar...
A survey of the greatest hits, it forgets what has made those hits so great despite cheeky references to Yellow Submarine and A Hard Day’s Night. If good lyrics were simply enough, many a bar...
- 5/18/2019
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
Arterton reimagines her Bond girl role for the #MeToo era, while Knightley writes frankly about the experience of motherhood
Keira Knightley has written a highly personal and revelatory essay about childbirth and motherhood, and Gemma Arterton has written a short story radically reimagining her Bond film character Strawberry Fields, for the collection Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies, curated by Scarlett Curtis.
Knightley, whose daughter was born in 2015, is about to release Colette, in which she stars as the eponymous French writer, celebrated for her taboo-breaking literary work. It is her first lead role for some time, having scaled back her acting work after giving birth.
Keira Knightley has written a highly personal and revelatory essay about childbirth and motherhood, and Gemma Arterton has written a short story radically reimagining her Bond film character Strawberry Fields, for the collection Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies, curated by Scarlett Curtis.
Knightley, whose daughter was born in 2015, is about to release Colette, in which she stars as the eponymous French writer, celebrated for her taboo-breaking literary work. It is her first lead role for some time, having scaled back her acting work after giving birth.
- 10/5/2018
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
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