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Gemma
Arterton practising horse riding for her role
as Tamina
Gemma Christina Arterton was born 2 February 1986. She is an English actress. She is best known for her roles in St Trinian's (2007), Quantum of Solace (2008), Clash of the Titans (2010), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Byzantium, and Runner, Runner (all in 2013).
HISTORY
Arterton was born in Gravesend and North Kent Hospital, Gravesend, Kent, the daughter of Sally-Anne Heap, a cleaner, and Barry Arterton, a welder. Arterton was born with polydactyly, and at her birth a doctor tied off the boneless sixth digits to remove them. She attended Gravesend Grammar School for Girls, in Kent, and made her stage debut there in an amateur production of Alan Ayckbourn's The Boy Who Fell Into a Book; it was entered into a competition at a local festival, where she won the best actress prize. At the age of 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, she "got up to my eyes in debt with a student loan". She graduated from RADA in 2008.
ACTING
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". In 2008, 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 was in the 2009 film The Disappearance of Alice Creed in which Arterton's character is kidnapped and abused in several graphic nude scenes.
She 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.
In 2010, she 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. She is set to star in Burden of Desire.
Arterton was seen in the 2010 films Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and played the lead in Tamara Drewe. In 2011, Arterton was nominated twice by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts 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 actor 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 January 25, 2013.
Gemma
started riding horses at an early age. She mucks in
generally (literally), feeds and waters the horses, then grooms and
exercises them.
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