Gemma Arterton

Gemma Christina Arterton born 2 February 1986 is an English actress, activist and film producer. She made her professional stage debut playing Rosaline in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Globe Theatre (2007), and first appeared on film in the comedy St Trinian’s (2007). Her breakthrough role was playing Bond Girl Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace the following year, a performance which won her an Empire Award for Best Newcomer.

Arterton has since gone on to appear in a number of blockbuster films, including Clash of the Titans (2010), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) as well as several smaller, arthouse pictures such as The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009), Tamara Drewe (2010), The Escape (2017) and Vita and Virginia (2018). She was awarded the Harper’s Bazaar Woman of the Year Award for her work both acting in and producing The Escape. Arterton’s theatrical highlights have included starring in The Duchess of Malfi (2014), Made in Dagenham (2014), Nell Gwynn (2016) and Saint Joan (2017). She was nominated for Olivier Awards for her work on both Nell Gwynn and Made in Dagenham, and she won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for the latter.

Since 2016 Arterton has run her own production company, Rebel Park Productions, which focuses on creating female-led content both in front of, and behind the camera. She has executive produced four feature films and two short films. Arterton is also on record as being a prominent supporter of the Time’s Up, ERA 50:50 and MeToo movements. Arterton played an integral role in persuading actresses to wear black at the 2018 Baftas in support of Time’sUp, and has been involved with ERA 50:50, an equal pay campaign in the UK, since its inception.

Early life

Arterton was born at North Kent Hospital in Gravesend with polydactyly, a condition resulting in extra fingers which a doctor removed shortly after her birth. Her mother, Sally-Anne Heap, runs a cleaning business, and her father, Barry J. Arterton, is a welder. They divorced during Arterton’s early childhood, and she grew up in a council estate with her mother and younger sister, Hannah Arterton, who is also an actress. Her matrilineal great-grandmother was a German Jewish concert violinist.

Arterton attended Gravesend Grammar School for Girls in Kent (now Mayfield Grammar School) and made her amateur stage debut in a production of Alan Ayckbourn’s The Boy Who Fell into a Book. Her performance won her the best actress prize in a competition at a local festival.

At age 16, Arterton left Gravesend Grammar School to attend acting college at the Miskin Theatre at North West Kent College in Dartford. She later received a full government grant to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), from which she graduated in 2008.

Career

Arterton won her first professional role in Stephen Poliakoff’s Capturing Mary while she was still at drama school. She made her stage debut as Rosaline in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Globe Theatre in 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 fifteen hundred candidates, Arterton plays Bond Girl Strawberry Fields, in what is described as a “nice-sized role”. Arterton describes her character as “the thinking man’s crumpet”. In 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 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. The role required her to be handcuffed to a bed and wear a ball gag in her mouth throughout. She requested that she be left tied to the bed even when the camera was not on her to help her performance. She joked that the crew would put the ball gag back in if she was chatting too much. The film was well received, with Frank Scheck for The Hollywood Reporter noting, “Arterton… handles the rigorous physical and emotional demands of her role with great skill”.

Arterton was the face of Avon’s Bond Girl 007 fragrance, when it launched in October 2008. In 2010, Arterton made her West End debut in the UK premiere of The Little Dog Laughed. She was originally attached to star in a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights as Catherine Earnshaw; however, she later left the project.

Arterton appeared in pivotal roles in the 2010 films Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and played the lead in Tamara Drewe. In 2010 Arterton also starred in the Almeida Theatre’s production of The Master Builder directed by Travis Preston, where she was widely praised for her performance as Hilde Wangel. In 2011, Arterton was nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Rising Star Award and was under consideration for Leading Actress for her performances in Tamara Drewe and The Disappearance of Alice Creed. In November 2012, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2012 International Film Festival of Marrakech.

Arterton starred in the action horror film Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters as Gretel, opposite Jeremy Renner who played Hansel. The 3-D film was set 15 years after Hansel and Gretel killed the witch who kidnapped them. It was released on 25 January 2013. In January 2014, she took the title role in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, the inaugural production at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the new indoor theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe. Both the play and Arterton herself received positive reviews, with Paul Taylor for The Independent reporting. “The luminous Gemma Arterton beautifully captures the multi-faceted quality of the Duchess”. In the same year, she starred with Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick and Jacki Weaver in the psychological thriller film, The Voices.

In 2015 Arterton starred as the titular lead in Gemma Bovery. The film is a re-imagining of Gustave Flaubert’s 19th Century classic Madame Bovary and directed by Anne Fontaine. Arterton learnt to speak fluent French for the role, never having spoken a word of the language previously.

In 2014–2015, Arterton starred Made in Dagenham, a stage musical about the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 concerning equal pay for women. Since its premiere on 5 November 2014 at the Adelphi Theatre in London, she has publicly expressed her support for their cause. She played a fictional character named Rita O’Grady and her performance received mixed reviews from critics. Simon Edge, for the Daily Express, complained of an “underpowered central performance from Gemma Arterton as Rita”. However, Matt Trueman for Variety praised Arterton for her “all-out star turn” and Paul Taylor, for The Independent, praised how “Arterton holds the show together beautifully.” Despite the show closing after only five months, Arterton was nevertheless nominated for an Olivier Award for Best actress in a musical, and went on to win the Evening Standard award for Newcomer in a Musical.

In a 2015 interview with the Independent newspaper, Arterton stated that she was director Jonathan Glazer’s choice for the lead role in his movie Under the Skin. Glazer, however, was forced to recast due to Arterton’s perceived lack of “star power”.

In February 2016 Arterton started a run playing the title role in the Shakespeare’s Globe transfer of Nell Gwynn, at the West End’s Apollo Theatre. Arterton was praised by critics, with Michael Billington for The Guardian citing her “natural sparkle”. For her performance she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play. In July 2016 she was named as a member of the main competition jury for the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. Also in this year, Arterton was nominated for a BIFA for Best Supporting Actress for her role as teacher Helen Justineau in The Girl with All the Gifts. Her performance in the film, a story set in a dystopian future world ravaged by a zombie pathogen, was generally well reviewed.

In 2016 Arterton set up Rebel Park Productions to create female-lead and female-centric film and TV projects. She produced the well received short film Leading Lady Parts in support of Time’sUp. The film starred Emilia Clarke, Tom Hiddleston and Gemma Chan and helped raise awareness for the UK Justice and Equality Fund. In the same year she played one of four lead roles in Arnaud des Pallières French language film Orphan (Orpheline), a role in which she got to exercise the French language skills she had acquired for her role in Gemma Bovery.

In 2017 Arterton took on the role of Joan in Josie Rourke’s interpretation of George Bernard Shaw’s classic story Saint Joan. While the play itself received mixed reviews, Arterton’s performance was widely praised as the highlight of the show. In the same year she appeared as the fictional young screenwriter Catrin Cole in Their Finest, a wartime romcom about a propaganda film crew working in the midst of World War II. Arterton’s performance amongst the impressive ensemble of supporting actors (Bill Nighy, Sam Claflin and Eddie Marsan) was generally well received.

In 2018 Arterton produced and co-created The Escape, a largely improvised film about a mother struggling with the breakdown of her marriage. The film received excellent reviews and Arterton was nominated for a BIFA award for Best Actress. She was awarded Woman of the Year by Harper’s Bazaar magazine for her work on the film. Also in 2018, Arterton was one of 928 new members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 49% of which were female as part of the Academy’s ongoing attempt to increase representation.

In 2019 Arterton appeared in the Netflix comedy Murder Mystery (which stars Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston and Luke Evans). Despite the film’s largely negative reviews, it was watched by 30.9 million Netflix account-holders in its first three days of release, a record for the streaming service. In the same year Arterton played the socialite and author Vita Sackville-West in Vita and Virginia, a film about the romantic relationship between Arterton’s character and Virginia Woolf which served as inspiration for Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography. Arterton is also credited as executive producer on the film. She also produced and starred in the short film Hayley Alien, which was written and directed by her sister and co-star, Hannah Arterton.

Arterton was an executive producer and starred in the World War II film, Summerland, directed by Jessica Swale. Arterton has previously worked with Swale on the stage show Nell Gwynn.

Personal life

From 2007 to 2008, Arterton met John Nolan on the set of Quantum of Solace and they lived together near Alexandra Palace. In 2008, she had a relationship with Spanish stuntman Eduardo Munoz, whom she met on the set of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. They lived together in a flat in London and split up after six months.

Arterton married Stefano Catelli in 2010, they separated in 2013 and in August 2015 their divorce was finalised “by consent” at the Central Family Court in High Holborn. Arterton stated she “never really believed in exchanging vows” and that she is not sure she would “want to walk down the aisle again”. In 2013, Arterton stated that she wants to wait until she has accomplished something in the acting world before having children.

In 2019, she married actor Rory Keenan.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	St Trinian’s	Kelly Jones
2008	Three and Out	Frankie Cassidy
	RocknRolla	June
	Quantum of Solace	Strawberry Fields
2009	The Boat That Rocked	Desiree
	The Disappearance of Alice Creed	Alice Creed
	St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold	Kelly Jones
2010	Clash of the Titans	Io
	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	Princess Tamina
	Tamara Drewe	Tamara Drewe
	A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures	Shelly	Voice role, UK version
2012	Byzantium	Clara
	Song for Marion	Elizabeth
2013	Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters	Gretel
	Runner Runner	Rebecca Shafran
2014	The Voices	Fiona
	Gemma Bovery	Gemma Bovery
2016	100 Streets	Emily
	The Girl with All the Gifts	Helen Justineau
	The History of Love	Alma Mereminski
	Orpheline	Tara
	Their Finest	Catrin Cole
2017	The Escape	Tara
2018	Vita & Virginia	Vita Sackville-West
2019	Murder Mystery	Grace Ballard
	My Zoe	Laura Fischer
	How to Build a Girl	Maria von Trapp
	StarDog and TurboCat	Cassidy	Voice role
2020	Summerland	Alice Lamb
2021	The King’s Man	Polly	Post-production
2022	The Amazing Maurice		Voice role, in production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Capturing Mary	Liza	Television film
2008	Lost in Austen	Elizabeth Bennet	Television miniseries
	Tess of the d’Urbervilles	Tess Durbeyfield	Television miniseries
2014	Inside No. 9	Gerri	Episode: “Tom & Gerri”
2016	Sport Relief 2016	Jessica Spencer	Episode: Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em
2018	Watership Down	Clover	Television miniseries; voice role
	Urban Myths	Marilyn Monroe	Episode: “Marilyn Monroe and Billy Wilder”
2020	Unprecedented	Ellie	Episode: “#1.2”
	Black Narcissus	Sister Clodagh	Television miniseries; lead role
TBA	So Much Love	Dusty Springfield	Television Film

Music videos

• Kerala (2016) by Bonobo

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Love’s Labour’s Lost	Rosaline
2010	The Little Dog Laughed	Ellen
	The Master Builder	Hilde Wangel
2014	The Duchess of Malfi	The Duchess of Malfi
	Made in Dagenham	Rita O’Grady
2016	Nell Gwynn	Nell Gwynn
2017	Saint Joan	Joan

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
2008	Empire Award	Best Newcomer	St Trinian’s	Nominated
	National Movie Award	Best Actress		Nominated
2009	Empire Award	Best Newcomer	Quantum of Solace	Won
	Broadcasting Press Guild Awards	Best Actress	Tess of the D’Urbervilles	Nominated
2010	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie: Female Breakout	Clash of the Titans	Nominated
	Teen Choice Award	Choice Fantasy Actress	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Clash of the Titans	Nominated
	Scream Award	Best Breakout Performance Female	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	Nominated
2011	BAFTA	Rising Star Award	Herself	Nominated
	Glamour Awards	Woman of the Year – Film Actress		Won
2014	The WIFTS Foundation International Visionary Awards	The Barbara Tipple Award for Best Actress	Gemma Bovery	Won
2015	Whatsonstage.com Awards	Best Actress in a Musical	Made in Dagenham	Nominated
	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actress in a Musical		Nominated
	Evening Standard Theatre Award	Newcomer in a Musical		Won
2016	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actress	Nell Gwynn	Nominated
	Evening Standard Theatre Award	Best Actress		Nominated
	British Independent Film Awards	Best Supporting Actress	The Girl With All The Gifts	Nominated
	Glamour Awards	Best Theatre Actress	Herself	Won
2018	British Independent Film Awards	Best Actress	The Escape	Nominated
	Harper’s Bazaar	Woman of the Year	Herself	Won