Gemma Arterton Reveals How She Made Ralph Fiennes Laugh While Filming The King's Man - Exclusive
"The King's Man" is, ultimately, an ensemble piece. It's a story about the creation of the Kingsman spy organization, set during World War I, and features a group of historical characters like Vladimir Lenin (August Diehl) and Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) led by an angry Scotsman as they attempt to topple the British Empire.
More than that proverbial league of evil, the focus of "The King's Man" is on these Kingsman founders, led by Lord Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes). In addition to his son Conrad (Harris Dickinson), Lord Oxford works with two house servants, Shola (Djimon Honsou) and Polly (Gemma Arterton). Polly in particular has a stern and even adversarial relationship with Oxford.
However, there is a turn in the film where that adversity turns towards the endearing and even slightly romantic. Looper had a chance to sit down with Gemma Arterton to discuss what it was like building that complex relationship with Ralph Fiennes.
Laughter in even the most tense of The King's Man scenes
Ralph Fiennes, is, it's probably safe to say, one of England's most prolific actors. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that means a lot of other English actor's have worked with him before — Gemma Arterton included.
"I knew Ralph before, so we are friends and we are both theater people, so you kind of bump into each other quite a lot," Arterton explains. "We had a sort of relationship anyway, and I think it was quite natural between us. We didn't have to work too hard on getting all of that. I remember there was this one day where we did shoot quite in sequence with our stuff. We started with the kind of lighter [scenes] and then obviously we ended with the kind of more hefty, more emotional stuff. There was one day where I had to come up and say [something] to him about cracking the code."
Despite the fact that the code breaker scene also somewhat connects with the deeply serious plot involving Orlando Oxford and his son Conrad, Arterton was still able to make Fiennes laugh.
"I remember I ran off and I was so excited that I cracked the code and I was making him making him laugh and Ralph can be quite serious so it was quite a challenge, but I quite like the challenge of trying to make him laugh," she said. "It became a thing that I would try to do, and that's really the essence of their relationship. She cuts through all of the crap, really. She gets into him and gets into his heart and so it was quite natural when we did get to those bigger scenes. It all just happened quite naturally."
"The King's Man" is now playing in theaters.