The “terrible film” that made Gemma Arterton want to quit acting: “I shouldn’t have done it”
(Credits: Far Out / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Mon 2 February 2026 13:51, UK
There are probably a lot of films you’ve seen in your life after which, as the credits roll, you think to yourself, “I wish none of those actors would ever make a movie ever again”. Well, you might be pleased to know that some of them also have those thoughts, one of them being Gemma Arterton.
But let’s focus on the positives first; Arterton has made many a fine film in her career, one that has spanned twenty years or so since she made her debut in the 2007 comedy St Trinian’s alongside Colin Firth, including a decent Bond movie a year later with Quantum of Solace and 2009’s stylish thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed, which earned her some rave reviews.
The first couple of years provided enough success to propel her into the big-budget big leagues, and here’s where we come to some slight… quality control issues when it comes to Arterton’s output, although it might well be possible she just got unlucky with her agent saying yes to stuff.
2010 saw her take on two massive movies, both of which pulled off the unusual feat of being completely panned by critics but still managing to earn bucketloads of cash at the box office. The first was Clash of the Titans, a remake of the 1981 movie, that featured Arterton opposite Avatar hunk Sam Worthington in a swords and sandals Greek God affair, which critics described using various words like ‘baloney’ and yet did almost half a billion dollars in gate receipts.
And the second was the video game adaptation Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which had all the ingredients in place to be a smash (Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Mike Newell directing, Jerry Bruckheimer producing) but just fell short of being a big success, making about $100m on top of its wildly exuberant budget.
The same year saw Arterton go right to the other end of the scale with a low-budget British romantic comedy Tamara Drewe, and it was a decent yardstick as to how the next ten years or so would go for the Gravesend-born actor, although she would get one more go at a Hollywood mega-movie in 2013 when she paired up with Jeremy Renner for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.
Once again, Arterton repeated the trick of ‘doesn’t matter what the critics say, we’ll watch it anyway’ as the fantasy movie somehow brought in $225m against a budget of just $50m, likely thanks to the Anchorman pairing of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay acting as producers and bringing a much needed sense of comedy to the otherwise far-fetched premise.
But 2013 wasn’t all smooth sailing for Arterton, to say the least. In the second half of it, she signed on to a thriller that featured a fairly bizarre combination of Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake called Runner Runner that she herself would later describe to Red Online as “terrible”, adding: “To be honest, I just wanted to quit acting after that. I shouldn’t have done it in the first place”.
“The script wasn’t good; I just did it because it was this big American film and everyone was telling me it was a good idea,” she added. “It was all the things I don’t enjoy when I’m on a film set, and there was a lot of animosity and tension. And now it pains me that things like that are out there.”
Runner Runner did make a profit in the end, but perhaps her experience on the movie contributed to Arterton making comparatively few films over the past decade, aside from some voice-over work on some kids’ animations and the occasional thriller like 2022’s Rogue Agent.
She will, however, be appearing in a new ITVX series called Secret Service, penned by TV journalist Tom Bradby alongside Rafe Spall.
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