INT: Rosamund Pike

Rosamund Pike
made for one incredibly sexy Bond girl in DIE ANOTHER DAY, yet other
than that, American audiences might not recognize her, unless they
happen to be fans of British films and theatre where she often
works. That would include
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, THE LIBERTINE and DOOM.
Did anyone of you see that? Okay,
maybe DOOM isn’t necessarily in the right place for that
particular sentence. Well, she
now appears as the confidant love interest to Ryan Gosling in FRACTURE,
the movie that brings back Sir Anthony Hopkins as villain. Rosamund
is quite stunning here and she pulls off an American accent
perfectly. This is the kind of
role that could open up her career and hopefully give her more
opportunities. It’s worth
seeing FRACTURE just for her.

When she stopped
by the Four Seasons in

Beverly Hills

to talk about FRACTURE, she came in with a very sweet nature about
her. And she has an amazing
smile. She talked about
working in
America
and also working on stage in

London

. As she is a stage actress,
you could see the love she has for theatre as she spoke of it.
Not that she seems to dislike film, yet she definitely seemed
to have a real joy for performing in front of a live audience.
And she also spoke of being a Bond girl and how she really
enjoy the experience. Rosamund
Pike is a beautiful and talented actress who I’m sure we will be
seeing much more often after FRACTURE.

Rosamund
Pike

Did you like
[the movie]? 

Yes, I love it. 
I’m really proud to be in it.  It was one of those ones that
I just think it looks so good.  It’s just got that edgy
sophistication right from the word “go”.   

You did a
nice job with the [American] accent. 

Thank you, I
really appreciate that.   

Was that hard
to stay with it? 

No, it just
about the accent.  It’s more than just about an accent;
it’s really about the whole attitude.  You can get all the
sounds right and still seem not American at all.  If it worked
then I’m really glad.  I think that’s the misconception
about accents.  Everyone thinks it’s just about the sound. 
You give yourself away in so many other things, an intonation and
also the way you phrase a line.  

Are there a
lot of differences? 

Yes, I think
generally American kind of drives to the end of the line more so
than English.  We tend to bring things back and tail off to the
end of our sentences.  Americans tend to be more assertive, I
think.  There is a confidence about American that we don’t
have so much.  It’s interesting, you can go into a restaurant
and an American will kind of just ask for a table, they will say,
“Do you have a table?” very loudly, whereas an English person
will say [whispering], “Do you have a table?”  

What
attracted you to the role and how did it happen for you? 

It was the
script that attracted me.  I just wanted to be part of the
film.  To be honest, I found Nicky to be incredibly, incredibly
hard to get a handle on.  I sort of resisted being in her skin. 
I didn’t agree with her.  I didn’t like her.  All the
things that are detrimental to doing a successful character, because
you have to find something to approve of or appreciate.  Just
her ruthless ambition I couldn’t get a handle on.  Like the
Thanksgiving, when they kind of take the piss out of her and give
her a hard time for going for corporate law, I completely agree with
them.

And it’s hard,
but I sort of had to say she’s decided to be ruthlessly
independent. She sticks to her job and she does a professional job. 
She’s someone who’s incredibly good at what she does and she
serves the client and she doesn’t get personally involved. 
That’s what I admire about her because at that level of law you
can’t get personally involved.  There are some things that
won’t get picked up by a first viewer.  One of the first
conversations Ryan and I have, when he comes to Wooten Simms is
about the Warfield case. Which is about a man, a client, we’re
defending who supposedly siphoned off billions of his own dollars
and we’re trying to defend him.

You’re working
with so many reprehensible human beings and defending, and it’s
morally so dubious.  I went out with some American attorneys
before we started filming and I said to this one woman, “what’s
it like? You might be defending someone who you really feel is
guilty and you get them let off.  How do you feel about
that?”  She said, “I feel the prosecution didn’t do their
job well enough.”  I thought, right, can’t argue with that. 
That’s the mindset.  It’s all a game. They’re all players
and you don’t get too involved.   

Most Americans were first introduced to you in “Die Another
Day”.  Are you fearful of the ‘Bond Girl Curse’?  

No, not at all,
there hasn’t been a curse; I haven’t had a curse really. 
If anything, I think it’s so cool.  It’s a club I’m
really happy to belong to.  Especially since Barbara Broccoli
has taken over at the helm and is a powerhouse behind these films,
the women have faired much better on the whole.  There’s
nothing to be ashamed of at all, nor has it held me back.  If
anything it has raised the profile.  It’s meant that I can
carry lead roles on stage in London and get bums on the seats
because people want to come and see a Bond Girl.  It’s great
– fantastic! They’re actually going to get a bit of a shock
because they’re actually going to sit and watch some long
Tennessee Williams play, but as long as they pay the ticket price. 
 

Have you seen
“Casino Royale”?  

Of course, I
loved it.  It’s great. 
I think Daniel [Craig] has taken a truly original, new direction
with the character.  It’s exciting.  It’s a departure,
and you do have to move on. 

When you’re
doing films do you miss the spontaneity of doing theatre? 

I do.  I
miss having a whole run to tell a story.  It’s such a luxury.
I always feel like it’s being a child being on stage, and getting
to play with your imagination, and play with your imaginary friends.
It’s like make-believe and you get to walk onto this world that
was created for you.  Especially when it’s like house and you
have all your stuff there, I just think it’s completely magical. 
And I never really think about the people watching.  You have
an energy from them and you can play with that.  It’s
exciting, or deadening when there’s nobody in on an afternoon
[show].  We had somebody have a heart attack during a matinee
show which is quite scary.  There is this horrendous sound of
somebody dying in the audience and you don’t know what to do. 
You’re trying to carry on and someone in the audience says,
“Stop the play!”  And they’re rushing in the ambulance
and he’s choking up blood and it’s all incredibly dramatic. 
 

So the show
didn’t go on? 

No, the show
stopped, and then we came back on and re-started.  I had this
line, “I nearly died of heart failure in your automobile” and
then this “aawww” in the audience.  It was extraordinary. 
It was uncanny.   

What is this
about your voice involved in Scotland winning the battle of World
War II [“Jackboots on Whitehall”]? 

It’s the
Germans.  Imagine if the Germans had won the Battle of Britain. 
And then eventually, the English retreat to Scotland where they meet
a kind of ‘Braveheart’ figure who finally bashes the bosh, as it
were.  It’s actually very silly and very brilliant. 
It’s these two guys, these two brothers, called [Edward] and Rory
McHenry.  They’ve always played with action men, since I
think kids, and they started filming them.  They painstakingly
put these films together.  They did one about the Vietnam War,
another satirical film about the Vietnam War.  I don’t
remember what it’s called but you can download it off the
internet.  It’s brilliant.  This is their first feature. 
They got money to make a feature. 

So this is
like puppet animation? 

No, literally
they are like dolls, so they have to move them a fraction, film it,
another fraction, and film it.  Sometimes they can get away
with turning them into puppets and move their arms with stick and
have little wires. 

What does
your doll do?  

She’s like a
very sexy land girl, with very old fashion British stiff upper lip. 
Up, up the anti, you know, run, fire, run, all that sort of stuff. 
 

Ewan McGregor
is in this, too? 

He might be. 
He wasn’t when I did my voice.  It could be real cool. 
It’s really good. 

Could you
give your impressions of meeting Greg [Hoblit] before the film and
his working style? 

He was great. 
It’s amazing to meet the man behind these incredibly creepy
thrillers, and [find out that he] in fact is this nice, sane, sweet
person.  Obviously I wanted the job so I went in to audition. 
He wanted Nicky to be this alpha female.  I always look for
vulnerabilities in a character when I come on board, and I often try
to soften them up.  It’s probably a hang-up from “Die
Another Day” just trying to shed the kind of steely exterior. 
But so I would always look for the vulnerabilities and Greg would be
sort of motivational therapy, [telling me] play the upper hand, play
the trump card, don’t let him in, keep it up, come down on him
harder, be tougher, don’t smile.

He wanted the
female to be the boss and he wanted her to be a pretty impressive
character.  He wanted her to be as much a game player and as
much a player as Ryan [Gosling’s] character [in the film]. 
So what you get is this combustion of an alpha male and an alpha
female and the sexual tension that comes from that.  Which I
think works and I think is great.  But I think neither of them
is good at intimacy and you see them.  So when you see the
little fragments of their relationship, you see that they are not at
all good at it.  She says to him, you don’t have to go –
which is quite an admission of something for a woman like that – he
just puts his shirt on and leaves.

They’re always
sort of rubbing each other the wrong way.  It’s all prickle. 
And you see her at home at Thanksgiving and she’s not happy in the
family environment. She’s a cold fish.  Greg wanted her to be
really tough.  But I feel someone is never that tough unless
they fear being exposed, that they’ve got something quite close to
the surface, feeling incredible out of control and out of their
depth.  There must be times when you work at a big law firm and
you’ve gone to the top that fast, she much to have worked
incredibly fast to be the age she is and straight out of college to
have gotten up to that position. You must feel out of your depth at
times.   

Coming from
your theatrical background, are film auditions something you feel
comfortable with? 

I hate
auditions.  It’s awful. You talk to other people in jobs who
interview for jobs once every six months or once every 20 years, and
we go through it every week.  And the waiting game and hanging
around, it’s very nerve-wreaking.  But it was a good meeting
with Greg.  We got on well.  It was one of those things
when occasionally you walk in and they think, oh that’s what I was
looking for.  That’s the one good thing.  That’s why I
got the Bond film.  They’d auditioned girls all summer and I
came in and suddenly you fit someone’s idea.  It’s pure
lottery.  A director has an idea in his head.  And
ultimately you can’t control it, although as an actor, you always
think that you could have done better.  But often it’s got
nothing to do with you.  People keep telling me this and I’m
trying to learn it, but you always take it hard.  It’s always
a rejection and a knock if you don’t get something.   

Is there a
satisfaction that can be derived separate from working the job, such
as exercising the craft, like I acted today and maybe I didn’t get
the job but I had a good feeling about what I did? 

No, because
sometimes you could have a room in tears and think…well probably I
got that then, and you don’t.  They probably go for someone
else because they had different kind of hair, or whatever it is, or
a different quality.  Things like that are wonderful when you
get to do something really wonderful.  You get to stretch
yourself and do something.  And then you think, I’ve given my
heart and soul, and they give you nothing.  That’s what you
got to do.  If you don’t take the risks you don’t get
anything.   

Is it
different auditioning for a production in London at the West End
Theatre, as opposed to a Hollywood feature? 

No it’s the
same process really – reading and thinking.  You want them to
fast forward to when you are actually in the role and they can see
how you are relaxed.  It’s fun, but I treat it as a game when
I’m out here.  I feel like a player when I’m out here,
unlike when I’m in London.  I can up the British accent, do
the whole thing.  I feel like I can get away with more here. 
I can dress up more. I can do more. I can play a role.  I can
re-invent myself for every audition.  Whereas in London people
are like, no I see through that, don’t do that, what are you
doing. It’s fun to create out here.  Last time I was her I
just did a whole lot of comedy stuff, not auditions but reading
people’s scripts for them. Making people laugh, I really enjoy it. 
No ever gives me the chance.  

Let me know
what you think. Send questions
and comments to [email protected].