Gemma Arterton recalls the moment when she suddenly understood French

The Kent-born actress, who didn’t speak French at all when she got the part, revealed: “I was learning French before and during the shoot. Usually I just hear noise around me, people talking and talking, and then there was one day on set where I just understood.

“And then I realised that I’d just spent half an hour understanding. It was amazing. It was a challenge, but it was a good challenge – it was really satisfying.”

The film is a re-imagining of Gustave Flaubert’s 19th-century classic novel, Madame Bovary. Gemma takes the title role, playing naive young Londoner Gemma who moves to Normandy with her older husband, Charlie Bovery (Jason Flemyng).

Jason heaped praise on his co-star, saying: “I think when Gemma does the French, it proves that when Gemma puts her mind to something, she does it.”

This is not to say there weren’t moments when she didn’t understand what people were saying, Gemma admitted – especially working with Fabrice Luchini, who plays Martin Joubert: “A lot of the time Jason and I would just be nodding and smiling and not really understanding what he was saying.”

The 29-year-old also joked that even the film’s producers struggled to see that she wasn’t actually Gemma, despite sharing the name with her character.

“Anne [Fontaine] and Philippe [Carcassonne], the producer and the director, they like the idea that I’m Gemma, and I’m like: ‘I’m not!’

“It’s their own romantic idea that they found Gemma – the real Gemma.”

Jason, 48, also struggles with people confusing him for the parts he’s played, he admitted: “I did a lot of those gangster flicks, and people just think you can properly have a fight and rob Ford Cortinas. But I go to the ballet.”

Gemma Bovery is in cinemas now.