Gemma Arterton says the boys get the lion's share of the action in 'The King's Man' (exclusive)

She might be brandishing guns in the recent trailer for Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man, but Gemma Arterton was hoping to have more action in the film when it arrives in cinemas in September.

“I have a little bit [of action] but I don’t have as much action as the boys, which I’m working on,” she told Yahoo Movies UK while promoting her latest film, Summerland, which is released in cinemas on Friday, 31 July.

“But I’m very efficient in my action. [My character] is very quick and to the point and doesn’t mess about and there’s no fancy footwork or anything like that. She’s just bish, bash, bosh, gone!”

She puts the efficiency of her character, Polly, down to the fact that she’s a nanny.

And the most recent trailer for the pre-WWI adventure comedy shows her in suitably prim attire, daintily drinking tea, but later reveals her getting to grips with a hefty telescopic rifle and firing a pistol.

Read more: Gemma Arterton feared getting hypothermia on Summerland

Arterton is no stranger to action blockbusters, with appearances in James Bond’s Quantum of Solace, Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time and Clash of The Titans, but it’s been seven years since her most recent action role, in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, when she co-starred with Jeremy Renner.

Since then she’s starred in a variety of roles, from post-apocalyptic drama The Girl With All The Gifts to a cameo as Maria Von Trapp in How To Build A Girl, currently on Amazon Prime.

The third in the series about the exclusive group of secret agents, The King’s Man tells how the organisation was formed to stop a war which would have killed millions. Vaughn directs and writes, as in the previous two outings, but the film has a new cast which, alongside Arterton, includes Ralph Fiennes, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and rising star Harris Dickinson (seen last year in County Lines).

Her character in Summerland is much less deadly, as Arterton plays a reclusive author who gets landed with an evacuee at the height of WW2.

Summerland lands in UK cinemas on Friday, 31 July. The King’s Man is currently scheduled for release on 16 September, 2020.