Gemma Arterton took certain acting jobs in the early stages of her career because she ”thought it was the right” thing to do.
The 31-year-old actress admits she wasn’t always so selective with the jobs she agreed to do for the ”first seven or eight years of her career” but is much more careful now.
She said: ”Coming from a working-class background – we were poor – then going to a drama school where they tell you, and rightly so, that you’re probably not going to work most of the time, and suddenly being given all these opportunities when I left …
”For the first seven or eight years of my career, I was doing stuff because I thought I should, or I thought I was lucky to get that part. And I am grateful – it set me up. But it sits really badly with me when I make something I’m not proud of, or doesn’t say what I want to say.”
And Gemma achieved worldwide fame starring in Bond film ‘Quantum of Solace’ alongside Daniel Craig but admits she wouldn’t do it again.
She added: ”I don’t want to slag off that film because I really enjoyed it – I was 21, and it was a trip. But would I do it now? No.”
And the brunette beauty agrees that it is tough out there for women in the film industry.
She shared: ”When you make films about women, you can’t get financing in the same way you would if it was a film about men.”
However, Gemma feels lucky to have such supportive parents, who have helped her develop her career.
Speaking in the new issue of ES magazine, which is out on Thursday, April 6, she said: ”They’ve always been really supportive of me and just let me get on with it. I think, for my parents’ generation, there was the idea that being an artist was a posh person’s thing to do, and a bit w***y. I’ve got other actor friends who still struggle with that – they come from working-class families and feel like it’s not a proper job.”
