Gemma Arterton talks Their Finest and the movie that almost made her quit acting

Nicole Sperling

Posted on April 7, 2017

Gemma Arterton is many things: charming, vibrant, passionate. Fresh off a run playing Joan of Arc in Saint Joan at the Donmar Warehouse in London and sporting a fresh pixie cut hairstyle, the woman formerly known as Bond girl Strawberry Field in Quantum of Solace appears to have a new sense of energy and enthusiasm to her career that at one point looked like it was going to be stuck in the unenviable girlfriend role. While 2010’s Prince of Persia forced its lead actor Jake Gyllenhaal to take stock of what kinds of choices he was making, Arterton, who costarred in that box office flop, needed a few more years to take charge of her career. She credits 2013’s Runner Runner, in which she costarred opposite Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake, as the film that did it for her.

“It made me stop wanting to be an actor,” says Arterton, 31. “The whole thing wasn’t right for me. It wasn’t the type of thing I enjoyed watching or doing. I had a moment where I thought, ‘Okay, I got into this because of Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier and now I’m making action movies.’ Not that I wouldn’t ever do [action movies] again but I realized then that it wasn’t for me and I decided to do more theater and collaborate with people.”

The change is evident in her latest film Their Finest, a delightful WWII-set ensemble piece from An Education director Lone Scherfig.

In the film Arterton plays Catrin Cole, a newly married copywriter who lands a job writing “slop” — the dialogue women say to each other — for films coming out of the London’s propaganda office. She stares opposite Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy, both of whom give career-enhancing performances. But it’s Arterton who appears revived by the project. We set down to chat with her about the movie and her career for an interview on EW Radio.

One of our first questions centered on her work with Scherfig, the Danish director who had tried multiple times to work with Arterton in the past. Scherfig says she was drawn to Arterton’s comedic timing and technical prowess. Plus, says Scherfig, “She’s a real woman. She knows how to work really hard for what she wants and she’s not spoiled in any way.”

Arterton and Claflin, who plays the curmudgeonly screen writer Tom Buckley, share an endearing banter with each other throughout the film. That was easy to master compared to Arterton’s bigger challenge, the Welsh accent.

Arterton has taken charge of her career in a refreshing manner. After Their Finest she will star in Julie Delpy’s new film My Zoe opposite Daniel Bruhl and Richard Armitage, and Vita and Virginia, which she produced and is playing Virginia Woolf’s lover, socialite and author Vita Sackville-West.

“I feel like The beginning of my career was kind of like, ‘Let’s pretend that didn’t happen,’ and now it’s really happening,” she says with a laugh. “I’m really happy with the work, and creatively, I’m buzzing with ideas.”

She also adds that she thinks the decision by BAFTA to promote gender equality is brilliant. Here she is talking about it.

Ach, das würde ich mir sehr wünschen...Hatte schon damit gehadert, dass BS II dazwischen kommt.

Btw: Ich wusste gar nicht, dass Virginia Woolf und Vita Sackville-West ein Paar waren. Man erfährt hier immer soviel Neues!

Danke für die Info, Laudine.

Ach, das würde ich mir sehr wünschen...Hatte schon damit gehadert, dass BS II dazwischen kommt.

Btw: Ich wusste gar nicht, dass Virginia Woolf und Vita Sackville-West ein Paar waren. Man erfährt hier immer soviel Neues!

Danke für die Info, Laudine.

Wer weiß, wie groß der Part in 'My Zoe' und wie toll und erfolgreich das Projekt letztlich überhaupt sein wird. Ich möchte da nicht in der Wunde der bisher für uns unsichtbaren Filme rühren. Insofern finde ich auch das Bashing von 'Berlin Station' als großer Rollenkiller im Netz, im Sinn von "Hoffentlich stirbt Daniel möglichst früh in BS2", gerade etwas schwierig. Ich kann durchaus verstehen, wenn man die Serie und das Genre persönlich nicht mag (im Gegensatz zu Richard), aber ganz unemotional betrachtet, ist das die Leading-Role in der Hand im Gegensatz zu Nebenrollen auf dem Dach. Und es ist ja auch nicht so, als würde Richard dazwischen und nebenher nicht auch anderes machen (O8, LLL). Da passt 'My Zoe' schon noch mit rein - zumal nicht nur Richard gerade anderweitig beschäftigt ist.

Und anfangs war es nicht vollkommen klar, ob BS für Richard weitergeht und ob er nicht Beides hintereinander drehen kann.

Für mich bedeutet ein Projekt mehr als das andere zu mögen nicht, dass ich andere Projekte dafür verdammen und in den Erdboden stampfen muss und das ist, wie Laudine schon geschrieben hat, im www (nicht hier an Board) zur Zeit leider der Fall.

Medienboard unterstützt Bullys Fluchtversuch

Das Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg hat aktuell Fördermittel in Höhe von mehr als 4,8 Mio. Euro für 31 Projekte beschlossen. Die höchste Einzelförderung in Höhe von 700.000 Euro geht an die herbX film- und fernsehproduktion für Michael Bully Herbigs "Der Ballon" (AT) über den Fluchtversuch zweier Familien aus Thüringen im Sommer 1979 mit Friedrich Mücke, Karoline Schuch, David Kross und Jella Haase in den Hauptrollen. Jeweils 600.000 Euro hat das Medienboard an Julie Delpys "My Zoe" (Amusement Park Film) und Thomas Siebens "Kidnapping Stella" (Henning Ferber Filmproduktion) vergeben. "My Zoe", für den Delpy u.a. mit Daniel Brühl und Richard Armitage auch in Berlin vor der Kamera stehen wird, wandelt sich von einem Post-Scheidungs-Beziehungsdrama zwischen Isabell und ihrem Ex-Mann nach dem Tod eines gemeinsamen Kindes zu spannender Science Fiction, heißt es in einer Medienboard-Mitteilung. Bora Dagtekins "Fack Ju Göhte 3" (Constantin Film Produktion) hat vom Medienboard aktuell eine Förderung in Höhe von 500.000 Euro erhalten.

Insgesamt hatten dem Medienboard für die dritte Fördersitzung des Jahres 2017 87 Anträge mit einer Gesamtsumme von 17,9 Mio. Euro vorgelegen.

The French actress and director will receive the academy's European Achievement in World Cinema prize.

The European Film Academy will honor French actress and director Julie Delpy with its European Achievement in World Cinema award.

Delpy has been a feature on the European film scene since her feature debut as the 14-year-old "wise young girl" in Jean-Luc Godard's Detective (1985). Lead roles followed, including in Bertrand Tavernier's period drama Beatrice (1987), for which Delpy received a Cesar nomination as most promising actress.

Her international breakthrough came with Agnieszka Holland's Europa Europa in 1990, and in 1991 she received her first EFA nomination, as European actress of the year, for playing Sam Shepard's young lover in Volker Schlondorff's Homo Faber.

In her career as an actress, Delpy has worked with many of the greats of European and U.S. independent cinema: with Krzysztof Kieslowski in his Three Colours trilogy, with Jim Jarmusch in Broken Flowers and of course with Richard Linklater, with whom Delpy made the acclaimed Before trilogy: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013). Delpy co-wrote all three films together with Linklater and Ethan Hawke and received an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay for both Before Sunset and Before Midnight.

The multi-hyphenate has also gone behind the camera, directing such features as 2 Days in Paris, a best European film nominee in 2007, and its sort-of sequel 2 Days in New York (2012); the period horror film The Countess (2009) and French-language comedy Lola (2015). Her 1970s-set comedy Le Skylab won the special prize of the jury at the San Sebastian film festival in 2012.

Delpy is currently in pre-production on My Zoe, which will co-star Gemma Arterton, Richard Armitage and Daniel Bruhl. She will receive her European Achievement in World Cinema honor at the 30th European Film Awards in Berlin on Dec. 9.