The film is a dark blend of betrayal, gore and suspense — and its leading character a chilling femme fatale riven by jealousy and loathing.
So, it is perhaps not surprising that five gruelling weeks spent playing psychotic Amy Elliott-Dunne in the hit thriller Gone Girl left British actress Rosamund Pike traumatised and physically drained.
But the instant the cameras stopped rolling, Rosamund, 35, made a momentous decision — she knew she wanted to have a baby... straight away. “After filming, I just knew I had to go out there and make a human being,” says the Oxford- educated actress, patting her bump beneath her loose-fitting white Christian Dior dress.
“The film was so tough and such a hard experience that the instant I’d finished, I thought: ‘I need to bring something positive into the world. Life is good with little people around’”.
Pike, who already has a two-year-old son called Solo with her partner, London businessman Robie Uniacke, is now seven months pregnant with her second child. But the happy domesticity she now radiates could hardly be in greater contrast to Gone Girl’s Amy, who is at war with her cheating husband.
Disturbing viewing
Indeed, with the birth of her new child just weeks away, Pike found it disturbing watching the film at last month’s premiere in New York. Gone Girl, based on Gillian Flynn’s addictive bestseller of the same name, is the tale of a marital meltdown in which Amy goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary, leaving behind a scene that suggests her husband Nick (Ben Affleck) has harmed her. What starts out as psychological warfare descends into a gory bloodbath. The film is currently showing in the UAE, and Pike’s other film, What We Did On Our Holiday, releases on October 30.
“Seeing it on screen was hard even for me — and I’d played the role,” says Pike. “As a pregnant woman, I felt so far away from that narcissistic woman.
“It’s the sort of part that does make you look at yourself and wonder where the movie role ends and the real self begins.
I thought: ‘I’d better make sure this is all buried away. I don’t want to release any of this when I get home’. The role was tough because there are scenes of great violence in the film — physical and psychological. The script just gets into your veins, as though someone is injecting toxins into you.”
Luckily, Uniacke, 53, and Solo were able to join her while the film was being made, providing some much-needed distraction.
“If you have a little boy, you walk through the door at home and you get on to the floor with some Lego — that’s a wonderful antidote,” Pike reveals. “If that didn’t work, I’d play ping-pong, which is a great way of getting things out of your head.”
Bringing up children
While her blossoming career may mean moving to America from London full-time, the actress is determined that neither of her children will become Hollywood brats.
“I look at all of the kids who are wearing T-shirts saying ‘Little Princess’ or ‘I’m The Boss’ or ‘I’m Too Cute’ or ‘My Mommy Thinks I’m Hot’ or whatever, and they’re encouraged in school to sing songs about why they are special, and it’s just got out of hand. It’s really prevalent — expectations are sky-high for kids these days.”
She adds: “I think we are living in a narcissism epidemic. We’re encouraged to share our lives in a way that is presented as fun but what it really means is that we end up editing them — we want to make it seem that we are more enviable, and having a better time, and going to more amazing parties than all our friends are.
“If you watch people taking photographs of each other now, you see that everyone is aware of the cameras in the room and everyone is aware of how they want to be seen, and immediately thinks, ‘Quick, change my expression, I don’t want to make that face for the camera’.”
“But if you look at old albums from your parents’ or grandparents’ generation, there’s an amazing candour in people’s faces you just don’t get these days.”
Track record
Though clearly a doting mother, there is no doubt how seriously Pike takes her career. To date, however, her track record has been more steady than stellar.
Although she played supporting roles in a number of Hollywood films, a big breakthrough role had proved elusive... until now. She discovered from Gone Girl director David Fincher that she had been cast while filming in the Scottish Highlands. “I’ve been ready for tougher roles for years,” she insists. “I was ready to get out of all the boxes I’ve been put into... for someone to call on me for the dark role. I felt as though I’d never been stretched.
“Even though I’ve played a variety of roles, I’m still seen in the same light: the reserved, cool one from Oxford.
“When I first met David, he probably wanted to see whether I had the guts for the role, or whether I was some sort of precious little English flower who didn’t want to get my hands dirty — which, of course, wasn’t the case.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have had some lovely roles where I am not the main focus — now I was ready to do something like this.”
