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Gemma Arterton lifts the lid on movie producers’ “traumatic” demands to lose weight

She was even filmed in the gym

Everyone seems to think film stars have it easy, with people swooning over how good they look 24/7.

But in a shocking new interview, British actress Gemma Arterton has lifted the lid on the – at times “traumatic” – treatment she’s received from producers hellbent on keeping her in shape.

Speaking about one (unnamed) film in particular, the 31-year-old revealed that bosses FILMED her to make sure she was in the gym, told her she couldn’t eat dried apricots and even flew in a personal trainer to keep her on the straight and narrow.

“We were out in Morocco. A couple of weeks went past, and they literally were like: ‘We need a personal trainer – stat,'” she told podcast The Guilty Feminist.

“And they flew someone out overnight that gave up their whole life to be with me and be my personal trainer.

“They’d measure me and they’d call up the personal trainer at, like, nine at night going: ‘Is she in the gym? And if she isn’t, why isn’t she in the gym?’

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“And then they’d get me in the gym and film me in the gym, and they’d have to know that I was there.

“It was so traumatic at the time.”

Having been trained at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Kent-born Gemma got her big break in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum Of Solace, alongside Daniel Craig.

In it, she played a character called Strawberry Fields, a part she described at the time as a “nice-sized role”.

But the actress soon discovered that, for some producers, size is everything. And though she’s a slender size 10, movie chiefs put pressure on her to keep her weight down.

She said of the unnamed film: “They had snacks on set, and I went to get some dried apricots. And this big, fat, obese producer went: ‘I hope you’re not going to eat that.'”

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And that wasn’t the only title on which Gemma was subjected to a strict beauty and fitness regime.

A similar thing happened when she appeared in the 2010 movie Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time.

“When I got that part, they really tried to transform me,” explained the actress, who divorced Italian fashion consultant Stefano Catelli in 2015.

“They sent me to a personal trainer, wanted to get my teeth done, hair extensions, make me look like somebody else.

“And that’s fine. I had the tan, I had the hair, I went to the gym.”

Well, those movie bigwigs may have had reservations about how Gemma looked, but thankfully it doesn’t seem to have damaged her confidence.

A couple of years back, she posted a picture to her fans on Instagram, in which she appeared to be standing naked in front of a window.

The picture was merely captioned: “Sunset.”


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor