Actress Gemma Arterton says director tried to pressure her to do sex scene

By Catherine Nicholls, CNN

(CNN) — British actress Gemma Arterton has revealed that a director once tried to put pressure on her to film a sex scene, despite the fact that it wasn’t included in the script.

In an interview with British publication the Radio Times, released Tuesday, Arterton said that, whilst on set, the director – who hasn’t been named – instructed her and her co-star to film a sex scene on a bed.

“I said, ‘No, this scene was written for us to be off screen, so you just hear the noises,’” Arterton told the Radio Times. “I’d never have accepted the role if it was going to be filmed.”

The actress said that she was pressured by the director to film the scene, but that she “flat out” refused to take part in it.

Had she been younger at the time, Arterton suggested that she might have been more concerned about being fired for refusing to film it.

“I only felt like I could say that because I was older,” she said.

“When I started acting, there was a lot of nudity – you were just expected to do it. When I was younger I played sexy characters, the girlfriend. As I’ve got older, that’s changed because I’m more successful and can choose the parts I want to play,” she said.

She praised the use of intimacy coordinators in film and television since the #MeToo movement, telling the magazine that “it’s a totally different landscape” now.

“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,” she said.

Arterton rose to fame following her role in the 2007 British comedy “St Trinian’s,” before acting in the 2008 James Bond film “Quantum of Solace” as MI6 agent Strawberry Fields.

The actress is currently starring in the British drama series “Funny Woman,” which follows a beauty queen from the seaside town of Blackpool in her attempts to become a comedian in 1960s England.

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