Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4210
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Gemma Arterton works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Gemma Arterton appears in 27 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Gemma. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for science fiction, animation, mystery. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Anand Tucker, Declan Lawn, Matthew Vaughn and others, Gemma Arterton helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again (2019) as Lily James · Summerland (2020) as Alice · The Boat That Rocked (2009) as Desiree
Career snapshot
Ranked #4210 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
27
2007–2025
Career length
18 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again
Most frequent director
Oliver Parker
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Oliver Parker
Most common genre
Drama
11 titles
Average runtime
1h 36m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.3
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2000s
6.4 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Boat That Rocked, St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, RocknRolla — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.4
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Boat That Rocked, St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, RocknRolla.
Most productive era
2010s
13 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.21 film | 6.35 films | 6.35 films |
| Action | 6.72 films | 6.13 films | 6.71 film |
| Thriller | 6.72 films | 5.61 film | 6.33 films |
| Comedy | 6.23 films | 6.84 films | 6.22 films |
| Crime | 7.01 film | 6.13 films | 5.81 film |
| Romance | — | 6.72 films | 7.51 film |
| Horror | — | 6.22 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2007St Trinian's
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Kelly Jones.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2019Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again
7.6 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025Watch the Skies
The current state of the argument, as (voice).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
27 of 27 films
as Cassidy (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Catrin Cole
Directed by Lone Scherfig
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Alice
Summerland (2020)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Alice gives Gemma Arterton a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Lily James
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again (2019)
Performance score8.1
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Lily James is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Elizabeth
The Cunning (2022)
Performance score7.6
The Cunning asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Elizabeth is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Cassidy (voice)
StarDog and TurboCat (2019)
Performance score7.5
StarDog and TurboCat asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cassidy (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Alice
Start here. Summerland is the clearest statement of what Gemma Arterton does — accessible, 99 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Gemma at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Their Finest (2017)
Keeps the romance register of Summerland but asks for a colder reading of it.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Their Finest — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
StarDog and TurboCat (2019)
Keeps the comedy register of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Cunning (2022)
Same director as StarDog and TurboCat, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Oliver Parker
Director
2 films together
Notably St Trinian's
Marc Forster
Director
1 film together
Notably Quantum of Solace
Guy Ritchie
Director
1 film together
Notably RocknRolla
Richard Curtis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Boat That Rocked
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Louis Leterrier
Director
1 film together
Notably Clash of the Titans
Marjane Satrapi
Director
1 film together
Notably The Voices
Jim O'Hanlon
Director
1 film together
Notably 100 Streets
Lone Scherfig
Director
1 film together
Notably Their Finest
Kyle Newacheck
Director
1 film together
Notably Murder Mystery
Chanya Button
Director
1 film together
Notably Vita & Virginia
Julie Delpy
Director
1 film together
Notably My Zoe
Ed Bye
Director
1 film together
Notably Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again
Coky Giedroyc
Director
1 film together
Notably How to Build a Girl
Matthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together
Notably The King's Man
Declan Lawn
Director
1 film together
Notably Rogue Agent
Anand Tucker
Director
1 film together
Notably The Critic
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Oliver Parker
Director
2 films together · 5.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
St Trinian'sEd Bye
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet AgainRichard Curtis
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Boat That RockedGuy Ritchie
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RocknRollaChanya Button
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Vita & VirginiaMatthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The King's ManLone Scherfig
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Their FinestJulie Delpy
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My ZoeDeclan Lawn
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rogue AgentKyle Newacheck
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Murder MysteryMarjane Satrapi
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The VoicesMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Prince of Persia: The Sands of TimeMarc Forster
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Quantum of SolaceJim O'Hanlon
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
100 StreetsLouis Leterrier
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Clash of the TitansAnand Tucker
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The CriticCoky Giedroyc
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
How to Build a GirlSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Boat That Rocked
as Desiree
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Summerland
as Alice
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again
as Lily James
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
How to Build a Girl
as Maria Von Trapp
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Summerland
as Alice
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Gemma Arterton has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
11 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Summerland
as Alice
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
RocknRolla
as June
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Summerland
as Alice
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Critic
as Nina Land
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
RocknRolla
as June
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The King's Man
as Polly
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Amazing Maurice
as Peaches (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
How to Build a Girl
as Maria Von Trapp
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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