Rosamund Pike Once Felt She Was Lacking Compared to Ben Affleck’s Performance in ‘Gone Girl’
Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike both impressed many with their Gone Girl performances, with Pike earning numerous accolades for her role. Despite the praise Pike enjoyed for her performance, however, she initially felt her acting could’ve used some improving. Especially when compared to Affleck’s at the time.
How Rosamind Pike viewed her ‘Gone Girl’ performance
Pike’s Gone Girl is one of the actor’s most memorable performances to date. The attention she’d gotten for her efforts earned Pike her first Best Actor nomination at the 2015 Academy Awards. But even she had her doubts about her acting in the movie. So much so she initially seemed to enjoy her co-star Affleck’s performance more than her own. At least when it came to watching a rough cut of the feature.
“I thought Ben was absolutely astonishing, and I thought I was sort of lacking,” Pike told Variety.
However, she felt that her director David Fincher brought the best out of her. Their work together showed Pike just how important it is collaborating with a good filmmaker.
“I want people to know I’ve got a big wheelhouse, and I want them to explore it. It’s about directors, I’ve realized too late on. You can be a great actor, but you’re not going to get anywhere without a great director,” Pike said.
Fincher managed to see something in Pike from the very beginning that made her perfect for Gone Girl’s Amy Dunne. In the past, he’s mentioned that he’s seen a few of Pike’s movies, and couldn’t get a read on her like he did with other actors. Which Pike was more than flattered by.
“Then he added to that, it wasn’t that it was sort of opaque in an uninteresting way. He said, ‘I was interested, I was drawn in.’ And Amy is like that, I suppose,” Pike once told Entertainment Weekly.
This allowed the Doom star to beat out other A-list actors like Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon who were also reportedly interested in the role.
Rosamund Pike on the Ben Affleck scene that made her see stars
Affleck was very complimentary towards his Gone Girl co-star. But what he was both most impressed by, and a little concerned about, was Pike’s insistence to do her own stunts. There were a few scenes where Pike’s stunt double could’ve easily replaced the actor. But Pike didn’t mind getting banged up for the sake of the role.
“She was willing to, like getting slammed on the floor and get thrown around. I kept on saying, ‘There’s stunt people who can do this, I don’t really want you to get hurt.’ She’s like, ‘No, I want to do absolutely, we’re going to do it,’” Affleck once said in an interview with Lorraine.
One of the most hard-hitting scenes Pike did in the film came when Affleck’s character ended up slamming her against a wall. Although on film it seemed Pike only had to endure the scene once, Pike’s head bounced across the surface multiple times to get right.
“I think probably around take 18 of getting my head bashed against the wall, I literally saw stars,” Pike said.
Rosamund Pike doubted she would’ve been able to do ‘Gone Girl’ when she was younger
Pike had been in the acting scene for many years before finding Gone Girl. Some of her most popular films prior to the Fincher adaptation might’ve been the likes of James Bond’s Die Another Day and Jack Reacher. She was in her 30s by the time she secured Gone Girl, although she was used to playing more mature characters even in her 20s.
“People think I lie about my age. I never had a chance to do those young roles,” Pike said.
“I’ve always been given roles that are more mature than I am,” Pike added. “Now it could be that it’ll all start reversing, and I’ll stay around 30.”
Gone Girl was one of those movies where she was around the same age as her character. It was also a role that she felt very fortunate to land in her 30s. She didn’t think she built up enough experience to do Amy Dunne justice in her much younger years.
When I was 25, no,” she told IndieWire. “But, I think I’ve had some big, pretty challenging roles on stage in the UK that stretched me a lot as an actress. So, I have been ready.”
