Former Bond girl Gemma Arterton plays a plain Jane who transforms into a beauty in her latest role. She tells Desmond Sampson how the part echoes her own life and how it felt right to take it on
Gemma Arterton can relate to playing Tamara Drewe - an ugly duckling with a beaky nose who is transformed into a ravishing, cosmopolitan beauty thanks to a style makeover, a new life in London and an expensive nose-job.
"When I was younger I wasn't very confident, a bit chubby, didn't have much luck with the boys and never thought I was anything to write home about," admits Arterton, blushing at the memory. "Then I went and changed my life by taking up acting, and I became much more confident - just like her. But my change wasn't as extreme as Tamara's, because I didn't get a nose or boob job."
The part in Tamara Drewe, an offbeat, Brit comedy directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity), was too good an opportunity for the rising star and former Bond girl (she played Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace) to miss, even though she had to don an unattractive prosthetic nose at the beginning.
"What attracted me to her were her flaws: her loneliness, vulnerability, confusion and loss. It's nice to play someone like that, who isn't straightforward, because it makes her seem more real," she explains. "It's actually rare to find a character like her, to be honest. Maybe it's because it's a role written by a woman about a woman?
"Also, I think the issues that she has in her life, like pursuing a career - chasing success - and how that has an affect on you, in your own life, are really relevant," she suggests. "For her, success means cutting herself off from all her childhood friends, removing her nose and playing a part rather than being herself.
Unsurprisingly, her character's startling transformation from unspectacular to a savvy, femme fatale causes a huge fuss upon her return to her childhood home to sell her mother's estate. In one magnificent, unforgettable scene she arrives at a local soiree, sporting a barely-there pair of denim cut-offs, reminiscent of Catherine Bach in Dukes of Hazzard or Kylie's hot-pants in her video for Spinning Around.
"I hated that scene and those shorts, because I'm a bit more subtle than that," growls Arterton. "But it is one of the most memorable bits in the film, because of the line Tamsin Greig - who plays Beth Hardiment - has in it, where she says: 'I hope those shorts don't give her thrush'. So, the only way that line can be funny is if the shorts are offensive, which they definitely are.
"I remember saying: 'Well, let's go for this length, which will be more flattering', and the producers went, Two-faced beauty
Tamara Drewe exposes all the secrets and lies of what, at first, appears to be a normal, rural village idyll.
'nope, they have to be completely offensive and up your arse, because there are lots of references to those shorts, so it has to really irritate everybody'. So, that's what we did.
"It's like countryside porn - especially the shot where they film me from behind," she snorts. "I remember that day vividly - they even made me a special sarong - because I was so embarrassed. I can remember thinking, 'is this actually happening?"'
Tamara Drewe is, with her performance alongside actor Dominic Cooper (who plays rock star Ben Sergeant) and artfully shot by the visionary Frears, turning heads and twisting perceived notions of what rural England is really like. Tamara Drewe exposes all the intrigues, indiscretions, twists, turns, secrets and lies that take place behind the gingham checked curtains and wisteria-clad cottages of what, at first, appears to be a normal, rural village idyll. But the truth - and Tamara Drewe - is anything but normal, or ordinary.
Helping this scenario along is Cooper's character Sergeant, a cocksure drummer of a mega-successful rock band, who roars into Ewedown, a quaint, unspoiled country town, in a flash sports car and wreaks havoc with the local residents' lives.
"Yeah, he's a completely self-obsessed idiot - especially the way he turns up in such a tranquil village in his bright yellow Porsche," he admits with a smirk.
Like many guys, Cooper - the star of hits like Mamma Mia, An Education and Alan Bennett's breakthrough play The History Boys, which he brought to Wellington - harboured ambitions of playing in a rock 'n' roll band. From childhood, he dreamed that music - rather than film - would be his ticket to ride.
"Yeah, I'm pretty much a frustrated rock star," he acknowledges, nodding his head excitedly. "As a kid, I was desperate to be in a band and was always going to gigs, or hanging out with my brother who played in a few bands. I also spent many painful, childhood hours playing piano and not getting anywhere," adds Cooper, laughing ruefully. "Actually, one of my biggest regrets is not being able to play piano now, because I can imagine it's a really lovely thing to do."
With his performance in Mamma Mia, where he got to belt out a few Abba classics, Cooper was halfway to realising his childhood dream and now in Tamara Drewe his fantasy has finally become reality.
And playing the bad boy rock star also gave Cooper the chance to try out every rock 'n' roll cliche there is, including playing the lothario when he beds and betrothes local beauty Tamara.
"But although I wanted to make Ben obnoxious and larger-than-life, I didn't want him to be a caricature, so I immediately bought a drum kit and started practising for a month.
"I loved the drums - much to my neighbours' hatred," he reveals, sniggering like an errant schoolboy. "I actually got an eviction notice served on me, from the local council, if I continued playing them. So, the drum kit went and with it that career path. It was a shame, because I'd actually begun thinking 'this is it, I want to be a drummer now'. But, for a few weeks, it was great, because my dreams of being a rock star and playing alongside my brother in a band - he wrote most of the music for the film - is something I never thought I'd achieve in real life."
LOWDOWN
Who: Actors Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper
What: Tamara Drewe, in cinemas Thursday
Trivia: The film is based on Posy Simmonds' graphic comic strip, itself a retelling of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Far From the Madding Crowd
-TimeOut
