Arterton: Gambles all in Runner Runner

MANILA, Philippines - “It’s always so much fun to play people that manipulate and have ulterior motives,” says Gemma Arterton, who stars alongside Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake in Brad Furman’s crime drama Runner Runner.

As femme fatale Rebecca Shafran, the right-hand woman to Ben’s on-line poker kingpin, Ivan Block, she helps run his Costa Rica-based business and is instrumental in encouraging Justin’s Richie Furst to join the operation. However, Rebecca may not be quite the nurturing type she seems. “In my own life, the most important thing is honesty — it’s the only thing I ever expect from anybody,” she says, “So playing Rebecca was an enjoyable change.”

Gemma is no stranger to playing the glamorous side-kick. In 2008, she beat 1,500 hopefuls to play the ubiquitous Bond girl in Quantum of Solace, opposite Daniel Craig. Before that, she honed her chops on the London stage before gaining film experience in decidedly British fare like the schoolgirl comedy St. Trinian’s, Guy Richie’s RocknRolla and the TV adaptation of English literary classic, Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

After the international success of Bond, she went on to co-star in blockbusters Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia, but didn’t forget her roots, returning to play the lead in both Tamara Drewe, based on the British comic strip, and British thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed, both roles for which she received BAFTA nominations.

 In Runner Runner, she brings that Englishness to Rebecca, who helps Ivan lure Richie into their murky world. Richie is a Princeton grad and former Wall Street star, who believes he’s been swindled by an on-line poker organization based in Costa Rica. He decides to head to Central America to confront Ivan, and is soon seduced by the promise of immense wealth. As Ivan’s newly-appointed right-hand man, he uncovers more than he bargains for, and is soon juggling loyalties and trying to stay alive.

Runner Runner is a Wall Street term for the get-rich-quick generation, a peek behind the curtain of a multi-billion dollar a year industry and a cautionary tale of unchecked ambition, easy money and excessive greed.

Rebecca is quite the femme fatale. How much fun was that to play?

“So much fun. She became more of a femme fatale on set; in the original screenplay, she was less so and it kind of developed into that. The script changed quite a lot while we were shooting.”

She’s also neck-deep in this world of high-end gambling. Are you much of a gambler yourself?

“No, never ever. First of all, I’m so not good at hiding my feelings so I’d never be a good poker player. And I’m too much of a risk taker to get anywhere – I’d end up squandering everything. It’s funny, because we shot it in Puerto Rico and there are a lot of casinos there and everyone was going out, but I never ever went. I’m so terrible at that kind of thing.”

Did you find this world intriguing even if you didn’t want to gamble yourself?

“Yeah, it is intriguing. It’s so obviously risky and these guys are incredibly intelligent; I met a guy who’d just won millions in this championship in Vegas, where he lives. He’s sort of the king of Las Vegas but he’s a real geek at the same time, because you have to have such a mathematical, logical brain, and it was really interesting talking to all these guys — it’s a really bizarre world.”

It’s clear that you had pretty good chemistry with both Ben and Justin.

“I didn’t know what to expect and you always think, ‘Oh God, they’re big stars.’ But they’ve both got a really good sense of humor and that can be the most important thing when you’re working with somebody — that they don’t take themselves too seriously. Justin is so sincere, involved, really keen to learn and very open. Ben had just directed Argo and he showed it to us in this tiny little room before it won all of the acclaim and awards so we were some of the first to see it. You can feel a little intimidated sometimes, but because of their humor we could joke around and play a bit more. It wasn’t so rigid — Ben and I would do quite a lot of improv.”

Much of the movie celebrates enormous wealth and showcases the morally ambiguous path you have to take to get there. What do you think its central message is?

“Originally, the central message was that success and happiness are not gained through distrust and lies. I think that still remains, that being dishonest doesn’t make you a winner.”

There’s also a “Be careful what you wish for” element.

“Yeah, totally true. I’m not sure if Richie really wished for what he ultimately became — he started off so innocently, just to get back the money he lost. But then he gets sucked into this seedy world — so yeah, maybe be careful what you wish for once you’re there.

Runner Runner is now showing in theaters.