{"id":47277,"date":"2015-02-09T16:42:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T05:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=47277"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:27:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:27:49","slug":"a-q-and-a-with-the-star-of-gone-girl-rosamund-pike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2015\/02\/09\/a-q-and-a-with-the-star-of-gone-girl-rosamund-pike\/","title":{"rendered":"A Q&A with the star of Gone Girl, Rosamund Pike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Loved the Gone Girl\u00a0movie? \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We’ve teamed up with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment to offer one lucky couple an all-expenses paid mini-break in Sydney. Just purchase a copy of the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn through Booktopia, for your chance to win! Scroll down for full details.
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But for now, check out our interview with Academy-award nominee, Rosamund Pike.
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GONE GIRL is now available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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An interview with Gone Girl<\/em> star Rosamund Pike<\/h2>\n

An accomplished and well-respected actress previously best known for supporting roles, Rosamund Pike makes the leap to movie star with her incredible performance in Gone Girl<\/em>, David Fincher\u2019s adaptation of Gillian Flynn\u2019s bestselling novel.<\/p>\n

As the title character, she disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary and the finger of suspicion points to her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck). The film peels back the layers of their marriage in a complex and gripping tale of deceit, betrayal and murder.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Congratulations on a terrific performance\u2026<\/strong>
\nThank you. I feel if anyone ever says that it\u2019s as much David as it is me. I feel he totally guides the building of the character. It\u2019s definitely our sort of a combined vision, the character – plus obviously Gillian\u2019s creation. But you can only do it when you\u2019ve got a good director, can\u2019t you? When you deal with a character that\u2019s this complex and you\u2019re obviously having to dig into some darker bits of your soul, you just want to be with a director who\u2019s going to respect that and hold it and not betray you in any way.<\/p>\n

What did you do to prepare for the role?<\/strong>
\nI worked with a boxer, but mainly because playing Amy at different stages there\u2019s weight fluctuations. I had to gain and lose 12 pounds three times during the course of the film. And obviously a boxer is someone who\u2019s used to resting above their fighting weight and then dropping weight to go into the ring. It was really difficult and really not easy using your body as a chemistry lab.<\/p>\n

David wanted to check that I wasn\u2019t frightened to explore anger, explore some of the darker sides. I suppose he wants to make sure that you\u2019re happy to check your vanity at the door. Probably for both Ben [Affleck] and I, really. And go where the character needed to go. He was very helpful when we were working on Amy\u2019s voice, \u2018cause she is obviously American and a very specific type of American – that East Coast, educated, quite light voice. She actually has a slightly higher pitch voice than I do.<\/p>\n

What do you like about Fincher\u2019s films?<\/strong>
\nI like the way I\u2019m asked to examine humanity and asked to examine people. And I feel he\u2019s just always illuminating, often in a funny way, about how people really behave. Not just about what they\u2019re trying to achieve in a scene, but sort of the tiny subtleties of how human beings work and manipulate each other. He seems to always manage to illuminate that. The message of this film is sort of: what do we do to each other? And I feel that\u2019s sort of been what Fincher\u2019s been about for a long time. He always illuminates something extra. In a scene that\u2019s simply about one thing, he\u2019ll make sure that another dimension comes in or you get a sense of some history. There\u2019s a reason for the large number of takes and the way we would work on a scene for a long time. He\u2019s adding layers all the time.<\/p>\n

Did you read the book before shooting?<\/strong>
\n\"gone-girl-order-now-for-your-chance-to-win-\"<\/a><\/strong>I read the book when I started talking to David. I found it very funny and cleverly observant. And I felt it was really about something I hadn\u2019t seen – there were ideas that I\u2019d never seen articulated in that way. Like the way this idea of the \u2018cool girl\u2019. Like Amy talks about it in the film: the idea that the modern woman wants to be the cool girl. She wants to be the girl that every guy wants. And that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean being true to herself. That means putting on a sort of disguise. And there\u2019s no definitive cool girl. The cool girl is whatever that particular man desires in a woman. If he\u2019s a sort of the hipster artist, you know, she\u2019ll be going to rare, out of the way warehouse shows and listening to very rare cut vinyl from 1982 or something. And if he\u2019s a petrol head, she\u2019ll be watching Formula One on TV and learning about classic cars or something. And that\u2019s maybe not true to her, but she\u2019ll happily try it on in order to attract a mate. Usually people laugh \u2018cause they recognize truth in it.<\/p>\n

Have you ever fallen into trying to be the \u2018cool girl\u2019?<\/strong>
\nYes. I don\u2019t necessarily think there\u2019s something sinister about it. I mean, it can be sinister if you\u2019re constantly acting. And I think I\u2019m generally pretty wary of acting in a relationship, because it\u2019s what I do for a living. I have to be pretty damn sure that the person who I\u2019m with knows who I am. I mean, that is where I feel secure is when I know that I am known. Because I think I spend my whole life feeling like I\u2019m actually unknown by most of the people who are trying to know me, like people like you. When you\u2019re with someone, it\u2019s very important that they really get who you really are. So I\u2019m pretty wary of that. But purely because I do it for a living.<\/p>\n

Do you think Gone Girl will propel you to a new level of recognition?<\/strong>
\nI have no idea. Luckily I\u2019ve been around the block and I\u2019ve had a share of success and a share of disappointment. I really know how this business works now. It takes a long time to really figure it out. And I can feel that there\u2019s an interest right now that there wasn\u2019t three years ago. But I\u2019m also equally aware that that can just go away like that. I\u2019m quite a realist in that respect.<\/p>\n

Do you ever regret starting your film career in a Bond movie? Did that hinder you?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t think it can be a regret \u2018cause I didn\u2019t know any better. I didn\u2019t know anything about the film industry. I didn\u2019t know how you\u2019re accountable for your choices. I didn\u2019t understand any of that. I thought that everything thrown at me was a fun adventure. I didn\u2019t really realize that how judgmental people are.<\/p>\n

You know, I was doing Pride And Prejudice<\/em>, which is obviously a critically acclaimed and really excellent film, and then some studio came and offered me an action movie based on a video game [Doom]. And I thought that was so funny and so odd that I thought, well, that sounds just fun. I didn\u2019t have the canniness to understand that was a really bad move right after you do something really great like Pride And Prejudice<\/em>. I didn\u2019t realize how it all added up.<\/p>\n

The only difficult thing about Bond is that the image is so indelible. You know what I mean? It\u2019s just so powerful. Historically I think a lot of people have thought that Bond girls are not actresses – that\u2019s just who you were, who I was. And at that age, it certainly wasn\u2019t. I was just back from backpacking having finished university, not really knowing quite how to go about the next bit of life. I went to the audition in a cardigan and with a suntan having literally just got back a few days before. It couldn\u2019t have been further from the image of Miranda Frost that then became the thing that everybody saw. It was very odd. And I still think that that image is kind of what people see. Sometimes I realize that people are still looking at that.<\/p>\n

When did you decide to become an actress?<\/strong>
\n\"GG-063<\/a><\/strong>I always knew. I knew that it was just a need to do it. But I didn\u2019t ever think about film – it wasn\u2019t even on my radar. I thought I\u2019d be a theater actress, \u2018cause that\u2019s what I knew. And I just knew that that\u2019s where I belonged. It was like knowing who your family is. \u2018Cause I never thought I belonged anywhere. I never felt right sort of socially or in any of the worlds I was put in, I never felt right at school. I never felt right at university. I never felt like I fitted in. And yet when I went into the theater, I fitted in.<\/p>\n

Amy is a very complex character – did it feel like you\u2019d signed up for three roles at the same time?<\/strong>
\nI think everybody\u2019s more than one thing. You\u2019ve got a professional self you bring to these things, don\u2019t you? You probably aren\u2019t exactly showing everything. It\u2019s just rare that you get a film that allows you to see all the different sides. It\u2019s very boring if you watch a film – and we frequently do – where you watch a film and you think, \u2018Okay, I know who this character is and then we\u2019re going to have the scene where we\u2019re asked to feel a little bit more about them, feel sympathy and there\u2019s gonna be some scene where they tell us about their some family tragedy\u2026\u2019 You just sort of know how films operate. And in this one I don\u2019t think you ever quite know how it\u2019s going to be played out. With Amy, you just don\u2019t know where she\u2019s going. We like to think we\u2019ve got a hold of somebody. And then she just blows it out of the water. That\u2019s great fun.<\/p>\n

How did you shake off the character after shooting Gone Girl?<\/strong>
\nI have a small son, which does help for. And David is not someone who really lets the neuroses happen. You know, we don\u2019t have the hardest job in the world, let\u2019s be frank. We have a very lucky, privileged job where we get to do what we love. We get to tell stories for a living. There is fear involved, but we\u2019re not in imminent danger. We\u2019re not in a job where we\u2019re actually risking our lives. You have to have a healthy attitude towards it.<\/p>\n

I think if there\u2019s any difficulty, it\u2019s the fact that you can never say the job is done. You don\u2019t know when you\u2019ve got to the end. You never get the satisfaction of completion. Because the possibilities are endless. But I think David has a pretty healthy attitude. I mean, I\u2019m sure he\u2019s as passionate however much he sort of plays it cool, you\u2019ll occasionally get glimpses of his just unbounded passion for cinema. You see the little boy who was nine years old and saw Rear Window<\/em> with his dad and you know that he\u2019ll go home from set and be thinking about it nonstop and wanting to know how to make it better – as we all are. But you have to sort of realize that have to leave it behind and you have to move on.<\/p>\n

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