Gemma Arterton is an English actress and producer. She is best known for her breakthrough role in 2008 when she appeared in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008), a performance which earned her an Empire Award for Best Newcomer in 2009.

GEMMA ARTERTON BIOGRAPHY: AGE, EARLY LIFE, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Gemma Arterton was born on February 2, 1986 (Gemma Arterton’s age: 37) at North Kent Hospital in Gravesend, England. Arterton was born with polydactyly, a condition resulting in extra fingers, which a doctor had removed shortly after her birth. Her father, Barry J. Arterton, was employed as a welder, while her mother, Sally-Anne Heap, runs a cleaning business. Her parents divorced when Arterton was just five years old, and so she was raised for a big part of her life on a council estate (housing project) with her mother and younger sister, Hannah Jane Arterton, who also discovered fame as an actress. 

Arterton studied at Gravesend Grammar School for Girls, a state grammar school in Kent. She made her stage debut in a production of Alan Ayckbourn‘s The Boy Who Fell into a Book. Her inspiring performance won her the best actress prize in a competition at a local festival.

At 16 years old, Arterton left Gravesend Grammar School in order to attend acting college at the Miskin Theatre at North Kent College in Dartford. She later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 2008.

GEMMA ARTERTON BIOGRAPHY: CAREER

Arterton’s first professional role came in Stephen Poliakoff’s Capturing Mary, while she was still attending drama school. In July 2007, she graced the stage for the first time at the Globe Theatre in London, portraying Rosaline in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, before graduating later that year.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Arterton discussed her role in the hilarious film Tamara Drewe, and what she had been like as a young teenage girl at Tamara’s age.

“You know, I was never like these kids you see nowadays that are so confident and glamorous. You know what I mean? You see these kids that are so glamorous and fashion-conscious. I was never like that. It just didn’t cross my mind. I was into amateur dramatics and books and stuff. So, yeah, I wasn’t image-conscious or anything like that. I remember being 14 and really fancying this boy and then he wasn’t interested, and thinking, ‘What’s wrong?’ You know, but everybody has that.”

Arterton then went on to speak about what it was like to have to wear a prosthetic nose in the movie.

“Yeah, it was great actually,” Arterton confessed. “I loved the prosthetic nose bits ’cause it just was – you know, I had a chance to just be silly. I have quite a small nose, naturally, and so they wanted to make it look ridiculous and kind of unbelievable, in a way, in size. So the nose was made and then Stephen (Frears) would say just make it bigger and bigger and it ended up being really large. And, yeah, I did a test. When I first had the nose put on I went around in my school uniform and the wig that I wear and people ignored me on set and told me to leave and not make cups of tea for myself because it was for the cast and crew, and it was actually really helpful because that’s how Tamara feels inside all the time. But I loved it and I still have the nose, actually. I’ve got it in my downstairs loo,” Arterton chuckled.

When asked if she could empathize with anything in Tamara’s story, this is what Arterton had to say:

“Yeah, I mean, the reason I wanted to play her is because at first I didn’t get her at all,” Arterton recalled. “I just didn’t understand why she did the things she did, and I wanted to work out why. I suppose you draw from your own experiences as much as you can, and then you have to use your imagination or draw from people that you’ve met. I suppose the only thing that we can relate to is that we were both sort of geeky when we were younger and then went away to the big city and transformed and I suppose that’s it. Everything else is kind of new to me. I suppose she’s quite sparky and quite witty. I like to think of myself as both,” Arterton laughed. “Actually, most of the characterization came from somebody that I had met who was very similar to Tamara Drewe, and I always was intrigued by this person because I didn’t understand them, and I felt sorry for them. So, yeah, for me it was quite – I still feel like I haven’t worked her out. She’s kind of a conundrum. And when I first read the script, I thought, ‘Ah, finally an accurate and honest and brave portrayal of a woman written by a woman – you know, something that’s not sugar-coated or overly-explained. And women are conundrums.”

GEMMA ARTERTON BIOGRAPHY: PERSONAL LIFE

Arterton currently resides in East Sussex with her husband, Irish actor Rory Keenan, and their baby son. She had previously been married to Italian businessman Stefano Catelli, before they decided to separate in 2013. The divorce was finalized back in August 2015.

Arterton has been together with her current husband Keenan since 2016, and the two have even starred together in the play Saint Joan.

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