Gemma Arterton: Hollywood rates film stars by how bankable they are — and I’m grade C

She set up her own film company after being treated as a “piece of ass” — and Gemma Arterton says producing has given her even greater insight into the way the industry views women.

The actress, who launched her firm Rebel Park in 2014, told ES Magazine: “When you make films about women, you can’t get financing in the same way you would if it was a film about men.”

Referring to the fabled List, which ranks stars according to their bankability in Hollywood, from A+ for the likes of Jennifer Lawrence downwards, she said: “It really exists. I’m like, a C.

"I know, because I am sitting in the meetings trying to get financing for films that I’m in. And they’re like, ‘We love you, but could you also get... [insert category A actress]?’”

She is now starring in Second World War comedy Their Finest as a copywriter drafted in by the British government to make propaganda films.

Her character, based on Ealing Studios screenwriter Diana Morgan, is dismissed by her male counterparts.

At the first UK screening of the film in London, Arterton said: “It still is the case that the majority of women on a set are confined to be the make-up artists, costume mistress and script supervisor, but it’s changing.”

The actress, who was born in Kent, made her name as a Bond girl in 2008’s Quantum Of Solace.

She said: “For the first seven or eight years of my career, I was doing stuff because I thought I should, or I thought I was lucky to get that part. And I am grateful — it set me up.

"But it sits really badly with me when I make something I’m not proud of, or doesn’t say what I want to say.”

Of Quantum of Solace, she said: “I really enjoyed it — I was 21, and it was a trip. But would I do it now? No.”

Her next movie is Vita & Virginia, about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. Arterton said: “A film about two women, can you believe it?”