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Vacation chat led to Virginia Woolf scholar directing pal Gemma Arterton in new romance

Actress Gemma Arterton landed the perfect director for her new romance Vita & Virginia thanks to a vacation chat.
The former Bond girl, who plays socialite and author Vita Sackville-West in the drama, was holidaying with filmmaker pal Chanya Button when the subject of her next film came up – and the director jumped at the chance to take charge of the project, about the love affair between Arterton’s character and To The Lighthouse writer Virginia Woolf.
“We were on holiday together and on a night out I was telling her about the project and she asked me to send her the script because she had done her dissertation on Virginia Woolf’s letters and essays,” Gemma tells WENN.
“Then about a week after we got home, she’d got the job! She has exceeded everybody’s expectations, she’s the perfect director for this film.”
Chanya adds, “I have loved Virginia Woolf forever, since I could read! She taught me how to think about everything, she’s the reason I became a director. I had several biographies of Virginia Woolf with me on this holiday with Gemma, so it was pretty magical really!”
Button even revamped actress Eileen Atkins’ script, which she’d passed to Arterton, urging her to play Vita.
Elizabeth Debicki portrays Woolf in the new film.

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