UNITED KINGDOM: Gemma Arterton didn't want to play "Tamara Drewe", the actress said at the film's premiere

Record ID: 219731

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Gemma Arterton didn't want to play "Tamara Drewe", the actress said at the film's premiere
  • Date: 8th September 2010
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 6, 2010) (REUTERS) DOMINIC COOPER BEING INTERVIEWED ON RED CARPET CLOSE OF COOPER'S FACE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR DOMINIC COOPER, SAYING: "It's very rarely portrayed (the English middle classes) actually but what's wonderful is the slanderous corruption that goes on within in what looks aesthetically and on the outside a very perfect family life and it's actually not. I don't know what I just said. Did that make sense? It sounded quite good, didn't it?" FAN TAKING PICTURE ON PHONE DIRECTOR STEPHEN FREARS BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR STEPHEN FREARS, SAYING: "I liked the jokes it made me laugh. I was just laughing about the countryside. ARE YOU A FAN OF THE COUNTRYSIDE? On a sunny day, when the cows aren't too violent." ACTOR LUKE EVANS BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR LUKE EVANS, ON PLAYING THE SEXY GARDNER, SAYING: "I just knew it when they took those pictures (of him topless in the movie). I knew they were going to use it. I'm just glad they aren't in the country when they're all on display, it's much better." CLOSE OF UNION JACK SHOES WORN BY ACTRESS TAMSIN GREIG COOPER BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS JESSICA BARDEN, TALKING ABOUT DOMINIC COOPER, SAYING: "He was like so hot in this film though but it's really embarrassing to admit it but he was so hot in this film."
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVAATYLN4QAOTHK0OQ82S1W25WAY
  • Story Text: The English countryside came to London for the UK premiere of the quintessentially English comedy "Tamara Drewe" on Monday (September 6).
    Lead actress Gemma Arterton, fresh from playing in Prince of Persia, takes on the eponymous role.
    In Ewedown, there's an organic farm that's also a writers' retreat, a teen heart-throb from an indie band, two obsessive teen stalker fans and a femme fatale who stirs up trouble wherever she goes.
    Tamara is a young journalist who returns to Ewedown to sell the family home after her mother's death.
    Once the ugly duckling, she's now a stunningly beautiful woman, thanks to surgery to transform the rather large nose she was always teased about, into a perfect specimen.
    Tamara finds herself an object of desire in the village after making a grand entrance in a pair of very small shorts.
    Arterton said while she was told she was the first choice to play the role, she had apprehensions about taking on the character.
    "I didn't actually want to play Tamara when I first read it because I didn't like her. Yeah she's a femme fatale. She's really lost, she's really desperate. She's a very modern like that. I know a lot of people like Tamara Drewe. It's good to know people you don't understand originally and you try to work out why they do the things they do. I remember Stephen Frears (director) saying I don't know why Tamara does that and I said because she's a woman. She doesn't know why she's doing it either. And sometimes we just do things and we don't know what we're doing," she said at the premiere.
    Tamara meets Ben, a famous, pouting, preening drummer and quickly starts up a fling with him. Rising star Dominic Cooper was recruited to play the musician, and said the movie shows a rare glimpse of the English middle classes.
    "It's very rarely portrayed (the English middle classes) actually but what's wonderful is the slanderous corruption that goes on within in what looks aesthetically and on the outside a very perfect family life and it's actually not. I don't know what I just said. Did that make sense? It sounded quite good, didn't it," he joked.
    Waiting in the wings for Tamara is Andy, her teenage boyfriend who liked her before she had her nose done and is keen to rekindle the relationship.
    Actor Luke Evans said he was embarrassed about playing the "hunky gardener" in the movie, opening the movie with his top off and chopping wood.
    "I just knew it when they took those pictures (of him topless in the movie). I knew they were going to use it. I'm just glad they aren't in the country when they're all on display, it's much better," he told Reuters Television.
    Serial philanderer, 50-something author Nicholas, is lurking in the background too.
    And then there are the two teenage girls with crushes on rock star Ben who are out to cause some mischief.
    Teenager Jessica Barden admitted that her crush on screen was also one off screen too.
    "He (Cooper) was like so hot in this film though but it's really embarrassing to admit it but he was so hot in this film."
    The film is distinctly British and features many darkly comic moments among the more serious scenes.
    Director Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity, Dangerous Liaisons) said he was a long-time friend of Posey Simmonds, whose graphic novel was the basis for the film.
    "I liked the jokes it made me laugh. I was just laughing about the countryside, said Frears. When asked whether he was a fan of the countryside, he joked "On a sunny day, when the cows aren't too violent."
    "Tamara Drewe" has been well-received in France, where it showed at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and opens in the UK on Friday (September 10) and October 8 in North America.
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