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Sarah Ajeamna-Daniel speaks to Gemma Arterton and J Blakeson

Next week sees the release of The Disappearance of Alice Creed, a thriller that follows two criminals as they carry out a meticulously planned kidnapping with the hopes of securing a large ransom.

Having previously made short films, The Disappearance of Alice Creed marks writer-director J Blakeson’s first foray into feature film-making. Knowing the difficulty of breaking into mainstream films, Blakeson explains that he was fully prepared to make the film on his own and as such, he wrote the script for an extremely low budget.

Despite this, Blakeson makes it clear that he did not want to make a film that was apologising for its low budget, explaining ‘necessity is the mother of invention so you take the limitations you’ve got and make them into a bonus.’

In fact, without giving away the budget, Blakeson hopes that the end product ‘looks much more expensive than it cost and obviously having the actors we do automatically makes the film a better, more expensive looking film.’

And one of those actors is Gemma Arterton who plays the film’s eponymous hostage. Having been previously cast as a troublesome student, Bond girl and a princess, Arterton admits that this character was quite the departure. ‘Usually you have to serve the style…or make the guy look good but this was the first role that I’d taken on that I needed to really do work on.’

Despite her roles in big releases such as Prince of Persia and Clash of the Titans, Arterton concedes that she’s more interested in smaller films and that she took the role because it was ‘challenging and a little bit risky, not your average Hollywood movie.’

And the part certainly is challenging. In the film, her character is forcibly tied down and stripped, a fact which has received much press attention. However, both Arterton and Blakeson are keen to downplay the importance of the female nudity. They explain that they spoke at length about the scenes in question and neither consider the nudity to be in any way exploitative with Arterton reiterating that her character ‘is not a victim and if she was a victim I wouldn’t have done it.’

Having recently finished a run at the Garrick Theatre in The Little Dog Laughed, Arterton is also keen to continue acting on stage. ‘I loved it and I learnt so much more about acting so hopefully I’ll do at least one a year.’

Arterton had to turn down four roles to make time for the play and she’s keen to continue making similarly bold decisions about her acting career, hoping that her strong performance in The Disappearance of Alice Creed will allow her to have more of a choice in the roles that she takes. Arterton also reveals that her director, Blakeson, is receiving a multitude of job offers on the back of hisdebut feature.

If early critical response is anything to go by, The Disappearance of Alice Creed is likely to boost the careers of both its director and stars.

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