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Gemma Arterton has revealed she had to fight with a top Hollywood director after being asked to film an unplanned sex scene.
The 38-year-old Bond girl shared that she originally signed on for the unnamed project knowing the sex scene would only be heard off-screen.
But in a last-minute plot twist, the director tried to insist that Gemma and her co-star film the comedy, and she refused.
Gemma continued telling it The times of radio who now avoids roles that require filming sex scenes, but admitted she would never have been brave enough to turn down the director when she was younger, due to fear of being “fired”.
The star said: ‘I remember being on a set once and the director said to me, ‘You’re going to have sex in bed. ‘ And I said, ‘No, this scene was written so we were off-screen, so you only hear the noises. I would never have taken the role if it had been filmed. ‘
Gemma Arterton has revealed she had to fight with a top Hollywood director after being asked to film an unplanned sex scene.
‘He put pressure on us that day. The other actor, God bless him, was mortified. There were very important people there. I said, ‘You can’t do that, there’s no way I’m doing it.’
“I don’t care if you think I’m difficult,” but I felt like I could only say that because I was older.
The star, who appears alongside Sir Ian McKellen in new film The Critic, continued: “It would have been very difficult[to say no]when I was younger.
“You might get fired or get a bad reputation. That was before we had intimacy coordinators, who are now the middlemen; it’s a totally different landscape.”
“Anything you’re not comfortable with isn’t going to happen.”
Gemma previously appeared in a gripping on-screen comedy alongside Daniel Craig in the James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.
She added: “When I first started acting, there was a lot of nudity. I was expected to do it. It wasn’t satisfying, it wasn’t fun. I didn’t feel like I was exercising my acting muscles.”
The British actress has once again travelled back to the 1960s to reprise her roles as Blackpool beauty queen Barbara Parker and the country’s favourite comedian, “Sophie Straw”.
The second season will also explore themes of love, gender equality, LGBTQ rights and representation in comedy, all set against the backdrop of the cultural explosion of the 1960s.
The first season of Funny Woman premiered in October 2023 as a six-part series based on Nick Hornby’s bestselling 2014 novel.
Read the full interview in this week’s edition of The Radio Times, on sale now
It followed Barbara’s journey as she went from being a Blackpool beauty queen to a comedy star named Sophie Straw while dealing with the male-dominated sitcom industry present in 1960s London.
Speaking about the second season, Morwenna, the show’s writer and executive producer, said: “It’s exciting to be diving back into the world of 1960s London with the extraordinary cast and crew of Funny Woman season two.”
‘Thanks to the genius of Gemma Arterton as Nick Hornby’s heroine Sophie Straw, a host of new guest stars have joined us.’
‘We welcome star-studded performances from Steve Zissis, Marcus Rutherford, Tim Key, Gemma Whelan, Roisin Conaty and many more… Tune in, turn on and stay tuned.’
Read the full interview in this week’s edition of The Radio Times, on sale now.
