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I recently caught up with the lovely Gemma Arterton who was in a right old chipper mood to talk about her new film The Disappearance Of Alice Creed. In Gemma’s young career to date she’s best known for her roles in Quantum of Solace, Clash of the Titans and the upcoming Prince of Persia. She gives a brilliant performance in this film. There’s so much twists and turns in this that I can’t really write much about it, I don’t wanna spoil it! I’m usually pretty quick to figure out what’s going on in films, but with this I was baffled! All I can say is that it was brilliant, a definite must see, especially for fans of intense thrillers. Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston (Sweet Sixteen, Red Road) and Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky, Sherlock Holmes) were great. It’s also the début feature film from writer-director J Blakeson who from this looks like he’s got a great future ahead of him, I’m already looking forward to his next project. The Disappearance Of Alice Creed is in UK cinemas the 30th April.

First of all how did you get involved in the film and what attracted you to it?

Gemma Arterton: They sent the script through Elizebeth Bennett who cast it, she’s the lady who is kind of responsible for my career, she’s been very supportive to me. She sent me the script and I read it and loved it, I then met up with J who had only seen me in a couple of things so he wasn’t too sure if I was right for it, so I went in and did my thing, then got offered the part. That’s it really.

Given all the nudity not just with yourself, with the two men as well, what made you have faith in J that he wouldn’t shoot it in a sleazy way?

Gemma Arterton: Because of the script, he wrote the script. People always talk about the nudity and to me it’s quite boring because there has always been nudity in film, they talk about it more when it’s a girl, because guys can get excited (laughs), the guys get there kit off as well. I dunno Alice wasn’t a victim, if she was a victim I wouldn’t have done it. She’s actually a really really strong woman with a great mind, very intelligent and savvy. I have experienced someone who shot me badly with nudity and obviously you get a little bit worried, it was something about the way the script was written, the style and taste of the script, I didn’t feel like it was centering around the nudity at all, if it was a different director from the script writer maybe I would have been more cautious. Me and J spoke about it a lot. It was a necessary tool in the film because you see her humiliation and you have to see how shit it was for her in that moment.

You’re in a distressed state and had to do so much crying in the film, did your eyes get sore?

Gemma Arterton: Yeah they do get sore, when I was in Drama School I never thought I’d work because I could never make myself cry, then actually the trick is too not actually make yourself cry. Sometimes I’d listen to certain music to get me in the mood, the best thing is to just really imagine you’re in that situation. I was in tears a lot, there was a day, the scene with the gun, I couldn’t see any more because I had been crying so much, I remember J saying please just one more Gemma please, I was like I can’t see, I can’t see the gun, luckily in this film I didn’t have to look beautiful my eyes were so puffy. I had to go away sometimes.

I had never had the me the opportunity to reallly really act in a film so far, usually you have to serve the style, serve the script or make the guy look really good, this was the first one I had taken on that I needed to do work on, I needed to work, not just work as in work it (laughs). It was so gratifying but it was exhausting. I felt like this is what I do, it was great, I felt really comfortable doing this.

Do you think you’ll go after more meaty roles in the future?

Gemma Arterton: Yeah, I did Clash Of Titans just after this, I’ve learnt a lot in two and a half years. J’s in an amazing situation because he’s being offered every film but he’s able to turn them down, because he started off with a cracking film, where as I started off having to work my way up, I started off with a couple really shitty films, which lead to this brilliant film (laughs). Now hopefully I will be able to choose the films I want to do more, unfortunately when you are a female actor you have to do some bums on seats films. I don’t myself really go and see Blockbusters, I do when everyone’s telling me to see them, like Avatar for example. It’s not what I’d choose to go and see, I’m much more interested in something like this, it’s funny when I saw the script I was like YES I’m doing it, occasionally though I got the odd LA agent saying it’s a little risky, but I want a challenge, for me that’s what excites me about film and theatre. I’m having a little break now, but the next thing I do I want it to scare me, I want it to be a challenge. I’ll be playing a stalker though, who’s really fat and ugly YEAAAAAAHH (laughs). The girl I stalk no one wants to play her, because it’s similar to Alice, she gets humiliated, I’m really trying to get these great actresses to play it.

Check out part 2 here.