Rosamund Pike Compares Her ‘Wheel of Time’ and ‘Gone Girl’ Characters: ‘Amy Dunne [Was] Able to Weaponize [Her] Very Dangerous Mind, Moiraine Doesn’t Have That’
Amazon Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time introduces a large cast of characters, but Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine Damodred has quickly become the face of the TV series. The 42-year-old star has appeared in a wide range of projects over the past two decades, but Moiraine is shaping up to be one of her most recognizable characters — well, alongside Amy Dunne from Gone Girl. And channeling the Aes Sedai requires a different set of acting muscles from playing Gone Girl‘s leading lady. Pike elaborated on how the two differ during a recent interview.
Why Rosamund Pike joined ‘The Wheel of Time’
Rosamund Pike’s portfolio includes roles within a variety of genres, but stepping into the realm of epic fantasy is new for the actor. And joining such a sprawling epic wasn’t something she’d planned to do. However, the themes featured throughout this one won her over.
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Pike explained what drew her to Amazon’s The Wheel of Time TV series:
“There was just something undeniable about the material and the fan base. I explored the world deeper and saw that it was written with this very strong element of a female power structure, which I thought was very interesting. Then I got interested in the idea that Robert Jordan had served in Vietnam and wrote this book almost as a therapeutic exercise, to make sense of the world in chaos that he’d seen torn apart while he was there.”
Rosamund Pike believes Moiraine and ‘Gone Girl’s Amy are very different
It’s interesting that the “female power structure” in The Wheel of Time books appealed to Rosamund Pike, particularly because she has a tendency to play complex women on-screen. Gone Girl is one example of that, and Pike told EW that she loves characters that “keep an audience on their toes.”
But while Gone Girl‘s Amy Dunne and The Wheel of Time‘s Moiraine both have tricks up their sleeves, Pike believes they’re fundamentally different. The actor feels that Moiraine’s power is more physical, while Amy uses her wits to gain an advantage:
“But also, Marla Grayson [in I Care a Lot] and Amy Dunne [in Gone Girl] were able to weaponize their very dangerous minds. Moiraine doesn’t have that, but she obviously has this tremendous physical prowess in terms of being able to channel the One Power. I’ve never played a character who’s got that kind of physical might, so that was fun for me.”
It’s an interesting distinction to make, and it certainly would require Pike to take a different approach to each character. But do her two roles have slightly more in common than her words suggest?
Does Moiraine share some similarities with Amy?
Although Moiraine doesn’t appear to be as ill-intended as Gone Girl‘s Amy, could the two characters have more in common than Rosamund Pike lets on?
During her conversation with Egwene (Madeleine Madden) about the Three Oaths, it’s clear Moiraine knows how to manipulate language to her advantage. While that doesn’t necessarily make her untrustworthy, it does suggest she can use her mind as a weapon as much as her physical abilities. Some might say that makes her just as dangerous as Amy, if not more so.
Only time will tell if Moiraine’s good intentions and physical prowess truly set her apart from Amy. Either way, Pike is flexing plenty of different acting muscles playing all these leading ladies.
The Wheel of Time is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
