Gallery Link: 07.09.10: GQ Men Of The Year Awards

Super sexy Gemma Arterton had plenty to smile about as she scooped the most coveted female gong at the GQ Men Of The Year Awards.

The former Bond girl looked stunning when she arrived on the red carpet at London’s Royal Opera House wearing a clingy little black number and killer heels. And Gemma, 24, walked away even more delighted after being named Woman of the Year.

Other big winners at the posh bash included Doctor Who hottie Matt Smith, 27, who won Best Male, rapper Dizzee Rascal, 24, who scooped Best Solo Artist and TV funnyman James Corden, 32, who was named Best Comedian.

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Gallery Link: 06.09.10: Tamara Drewe UK Premiere
Gallery Link: 06.09.10: Tamara Drewe UK Premiere After Party

Gemma Arterton has revealed that she did not want to play the lead role in her latest film, Tamara Drewe, when she was first offered the part.

The 24-year-old British actress did eventually agree to take the title role in the film, a comedy based on Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel.

Set in the English countryside, it is a comedy about a young newspaper journalist torn between two lovers.

Speaking at the UK premiere of the film in London’s Leicester Square, Gemma said: “I didn’t actually want to play Tamara when I first read it because I didn’t like her.

“She’s a femme fatale but she’s really lost, she’s desperate, she’s a very modern woman. I know a lot of women like Tamara Drewe.

“It’s good to play people that you don’t understand originally because you have to work out why they do the things that they do.”

Former Bond girl Gemma, who was dressed in a floor-length cream Gucci dress, was joined on the red carpet by a host of British talent including Dominic Cooper and Tamsin Greig, who both star in the film, and director Stephen Frears.

She added: “I remember Stephen Frears saying to me, ‘I just don’t know why Tamara does that’, and I said, ‘It’s because she’s a woman, she doesn’t really know why she’s doing it either’.

“I don’t think he ever begged me to do it or anything like that but he just said, ‘I won’t do it unless you do it’ which was quite scary.”

Frears agreed that he was lucky to secure Arterton for the role. He said: “She is a very witty woman, Gemma. She’s gorgeous, witty and a very good actress. She just had everything I needed, really.”

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Stephen Frears new comedy Tamara Drewe will open the third Branchage Jersey film festival from 23 September.

Like last year organisers have put together a varied and challenging programme of films, music and comedy shown in venues around the island.

There will be exclusive screenings and live music performances in some of the island’s quirkiest locations.

Since the first festival in 2008, the events attracted filmmakers and watchers from around the world.

This year’s Branchage Jersey International film festival will be staged from the 23 to the 26 September.

Venues being used for screenings at this years festival have been: “Carefully chosen to compliment the content and tone of every film.”

They include the hosts of some of the big events and feature films: Cineworld, Jersey Opera House and the Barclays Wealth Spiegeltent.

But old favourites like the Live Lounge, Classic Herd Barn, Town Church and Jersey Arts Centre will also be making a return.

In addition this year will see films in a polytunnel, Bento Sushi Bar, Merchants House, a horse box and the Societe Jersiaise.

The festival will be brought to a close with a gala screening of the Afghanistan cricket documentary, filmed partly in Jersey.

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She’s avoided the Bond girl curse to star in Stephen Frears’s raucous, raunchy new comedy. Cath Clark hears about squeezing into outfits, her new Sloaney look and ‘Midsomer Murders’

Rising star Gemma Arterton left Rada three years ago. Since then, she has played a head girl (‘St Trinian’s’), a Bond girl (‘Quantum of Solace’) and a canny kidnap victim (‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’) and been in a blockbuster or two (‘Clash of the Titans’, ‘Prince of Persia’). Now she’s the heroine of black comedy ‘Tamara Drewe’, Stephen Frears’s adaptation of Posy Simmonds’s comic strip. Newspaper columnist Tamara is forced back to the village where she grew up. Once an ugly duckling, she returns, post-nose-job, as a smouldering femme fatale, entangling a trio of admirers: indie-drummer, fit farmer and philandering crime novelist.

Tamara makes a memorably slutty entrance back in the village, wearing the shortest denim shorts ever, prompting the catty comment, ‘I hope they don’t give her thrush’. Did you have any say in the shorts?
‘That’s such a Daily Mail reader’s comment isn’t it? Those shorts. Ugh. I really wanted them to be culottes, more flattering on the bottom. But for that joke to work they had to be alarmingly tight and offensive to a woman. I was in Paris about a month ago, where the film is already out. There are these posters of me in those bloody shorts everywhere.’

The ‘Tamara Drewe’ graphic novel is much loved. Did you know it already?
‘No, I hadn’t even heard about it. At the start, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do the film. I really liked the script and I knew that I could do it but I had a little bit of apprehension. I’m not sure why. Then they sent me the comic, and that was the deal-maker. I’ve always loved Thomas Hardy [‘Tamara Drewe’ is loosely based on ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’] and I just fell in love with the comic. Posy is so clever. She did a drawing of me as Tamara. It’s in my bathroom: the front cover of the book but with my face. It’s brilliant.’

Stephen Frears said that he wouldn’t make the film without you. Did he tell you that?
‘It’s funny when he says things like that because he’s so bumbling. I remember when I met Stephen, I had read with his casting director. She’d phoned him to say that I should be Tamara. So I met up with them both and he said: “Oh yes, you’ll do.” He’d never seen me in anything. I was asking if I could please audition – or something! I wanted to make sure he knew he had made the right decision. A lot of us are quite close to our characters.’

You’re not like Tamara are you? She’s outrageous.
‘Not character-wise, no! But I drive a Mini in real life. She drives a Mini. Her light-heartedness, her freshness, the cheekiness – that was kind of the easy bit for me. And she’s a modern woman.’

You’ve done a lot of period work. Is it harder without the costumes? Do they tool you up?
‘You haven’t got anything to hide behind. Luckily I know someone who is Tamara Drewe: she had a nose job when she was 15, moved to the big city and became a success but she hasn’t really got any friends; she’s a real temptress but doesn’t have any respect for herself. So I had this really clear idea of Tamara.’

The film is a raucous black comedy with bonking and a dash of Agatha Christie. Very English. Was it hard to find the right tone?
‘It could have become like a really bad episode of “Midsomer Murders”. But Stephen is an expert on getting the tone right. I think he’s done an amazing job. I don’t think anybody else could get it right.’

Were you familiar with the country-living world of ‘Tamara Drewe’? Did you grow up on a farm somewhere?
‘Not at all. I grew up on a council estate in Kent. It’s funny, when I turned up on set in a Barbour jacket, corduroys and Wellingtons, with my hair all Sloaney, my husband was like, “Argh!”. We live in Battersea, quite close to Chelsea, so there is quite a bit of that around us. But where I grew up, no way!’

You have come a cropper in a lot of films: drowning in oil, kidnapped and handcuffed to a bed… Was it a relief that all you had to contend with for this film was a prosthetic nose?
‘I know. I was thinking there was going to be some kind of sticky end to Tamara Drewe. It’s refreshing not having to do a dying scene. They are always the eggy ones to do – you wake up and think: I’ve got to do the death scene today.’

Your first big part was as a Bond girl. Can it ever feel like a ball and chain?
‘Not for me. At the time, people talked about the curse of the Bond girl, saying I’d never work again. But that’s not happened – though I’m for ever going to be “Gemma Arterton, Bond Girl”. When I did “Alice Creed”, the director wasn’t sure if I was right for it because I’d been in a Bond movie. You have to just accept that and hope they give you a chance.’

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Gemma Arterton has revealed she has kept the prosthetic nose from her new film, Tamara Drewe.

The Prince Of Persia star dons a big fake nose to play the title role in Stephen Frears’ new drama, but rather than saying goodbye to it once filming ended, she gave it the pride of place in her bathroom.

“I actually have that nose in my bathroom, framed – it’s great, I just look at it sometimes,” she said.

In the film, based on Posy Simmonds’ comic strip, Tamara returns to her childhood Dorset village as a smouldering femme fatale with a glamorous job and a new nose after leaving as an awkward teenager.

“The nose started off as just being a big nose and not ridiculously big, and then Stephen thought it would be funny to just keep making it bigger and bigger, so I had this big beak,” Gemma recalled.

“It’s amazing how much it changed my face but some people didn’t know it was me wearing it. I went on set and I had the whole get-up on

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