British actress Gemma Arterton has become the "it" girl of action movies recently. First, she starred alongside Daniel Craig as Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace, then she landed the role of Sam Worthington's love interest in Clash of the Titans, and soon she will be appearing as Princess Tamina opposite Jake Gyllenhaal's Prince Dastan in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
In a recent interview with Coming Soon, Arterton discussed how working on such high-profile projects is changing her life.
I'm really starting to feel it. Things have changed very quickly. Usually, I can kind of get on with my work and not think about it but it's actually having an effect on my life now and that's fine. I just have to kind of get used to it I suppose but it has been really, really quick and hey, why not, you know? If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen and just deal with it, but yeah, it's mad what's happened. In a year, I think I've done eight films or something. I don't know how I've done it. I don't know how I have the energy but I do somehow.
Like Gyllenhaal, who trained extensively for the movie, from weight trainging and sword fighting to learning Parkour, Arterton had to pick up a new set of skills to play Princess Tamina.
I had to learn how to horse ride 'cause I'd never done it before in my life, and it's kind of become a real new sort of passion for me. Pretty much the whole cast went to Spain and learned to horse ride for two weeks, which was incredible to have that opportunity and then we all kind of continued it. Then I have to do loads of fighting but there isn't a particular style to my fighting. It's quite wild 'cause she's never really been trained to fight so it's just kind of go "aaaagh" like that, but just doing it with some sort of skill. Where I went to drama school I trained in stage combat quite heavily so I had quite a bit of experience before.
Arterton said that she relishes the action and perhaps she "should have really been a stuntwoman."
I really enjoy it even though sometimes you think, "Oh, God, there are actually people that are trained to do this and they're trained to get battered and bruised," but I've loved doing all of that and the fighting. It's gobsmacking the sets and the costume and the sheer scale of this film and then you're kind of put into into this completely different world and that is really, really fantastic. You don't have to really imagine much 'cause it's there designed right in front of you, and so that's been brilliant as well.