British Bond actress reveals director’s attempt to force unscripted sex scene
Murder Mystery star and British sweetheart Gemma Arterton recently revealed that a director once tried to force her to film a disturbing and unscripted sex scene that was originally written to be off-camera.
Speaking with Radio Times in a recent interview, the 38-year-old shared that a director she refused to name tried to change course on the intimate scene at the last minute during the shoot.
Diving into the past experience, the actor said: “I remember being on a set once, and the director said: ‘You’re going to shag on the bed’.”
“And I said: ‘No, this scene was written for us to be off-screen, so you just hear the noises.’ I’d never have accepted the role if it was going to be filmed,” Arterton confessed, highlighting the sensitive nature of the content she was asked to shoot without preparation.
“He [the director] put pressure on us that day. The other actor, God bless him, was mortified,” she continued. “There were very high-profile people there. I said: ‘You can’t do that, I’m flat out not doing it. I don’t care if you think I’m difficult.’ But I only felt like I could say that because I was older.”
In an exploration of her previous work, before the#MeToo movement had impacted the film industry, the actor further revealed that: “When I started acting, there was a lot of nudity—you were just expected to do it.”
Arterton admitted that a situation like the one with the unscripted sex scene: “would have been really hard” if this had happened earlier on in her career, explaining: “You might get the sack, or get a terrible reputation.”
She continued: “When I was younger I played sexy characters, the girlfriend,” directing attention towards her early roles in St. Trinian’s and Tamara Drewe, which followed this outline.
“It was before we had intimacy coordinators, who are the go-between now—it’s a totally different landscape,” she added. “Anything you’re not comfortable with is not going to happen. I’ve heard other actors that are like: ‘I loved it when there was no intimacy coordinator,’ but I definitely think it’s better.”
“As I’ve got older, that’s changed because I’m [also] more successful and can choose the parts I want to play,” Arterton stated, before she continued to define her journey of learning to speak up for herself and avoiding one-dimensional roles to propel her career forward.
Of course, Arterton isn’t the only female actor who had an experience like this. Megan Fox previously stated that she turned down roles because they had “graphic sex” scenes she didn’t want her family to see, whereas Keira Knightley decided that she would no longer film nude scenes for male directors after she became a mother because she was done satisfying “the male gaze.” Other actors like Anna Kendrick refuse to do nude scenes at all.
This conversation highlights concerns around the treatment of women’s bodies on set and broader considerations about subjecting themselves to a voyeuristic and exploitative lens that many actors still consider to this date.
