Gemma Arterton feared hypothermia on 'Summerland' shoot (exclusive)

Gemma Arterton has revealed she was scared of suffering from hypothermia while filming a scene from her new film, Summerland.

A sequence towards the end of World War II drama, released in cinemas this Friday, 31 July, sees her plunging into the sea – the English Channel – to rescue a child.

“I was so cold,” she tells Yahoo Movies UK in the video (above).

“We were in there for quite a while, and I actually thought I might have got hypothermia.”

As she suffers from Raynaud’s (a circulation problem which can turn toes and fingers blue), she “loses circulation in my hands and feet really easily, and my hands and feet just died.”

Summerland was shot on location in East Sussex in the towns of Seaford, Brighton and Kent.

Arterton paid tribute to young co-star Lucas Bond, who was on hand to help once they came out of the water. “He just wrapped me up in blankets and got me a hot water bottle. He’s just the sweetest boy and took care of me, even though he himself was freezing.”

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Summerland sees Arterton in her second World War II film in recent years (Their Finest was released in the UK in 2017), this time playing reclusive author, Alice, who has a young evacuee (Bond) from the London Blitz dumped in her reluctant care. His arrival awakens memories of a love affair from her past.

She describes the setting as a time when everybody was mucking in, one which gave writer and director Jessica Swale the opportunity to put Alice “on the outskirts of society. She really fights against having anything to do with anyone. So in the Second World War, someone like Alice wasn’t abiding by any of the rules and was pretty outrageous.”

The two had worked together previously when Arterton played the title role in the 2016 West End production of Swale’s award winning play Nell Gwynn.

Summerland is released in cinemas on Friday, 31 July. Watch a trailer below.