“The thing that was usual about this morning is that usually I’m awakened by somebody who wants food,” Oscar nominee and new mother Rosamund Pike told TheWrap on Thursday morning. “This time it was by somebody delivering amazing news.”
Pike, the British actress who stars in David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” as a housewife who is by turns seductive, innocent and murderous, said she learned of her nomination on a morning when she was watching both of her boys, one born in 2012 and the other born only six weeks ago.
“It was delicious chaos,” she said. “Me and the two boys in the bed talking to people on the phone. I shift from talking about nominations to talking about dinosaurs.”
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The scene was a far cry from when she learned that she’d been nominated for a Golden Globe in December. That day, she was in London, going to the hospital with her new baby, less than two weeks old, who’d caught a fever from his older brother. The emergency passed and the baby is now fine, but the jarring juxtaposition was a reminder that Pike hasn’t exactly been on the campaign trail this awards season.
“I’ve never been part of the awards conversation before, and I hadn’t realized that there was some sort of campaign period,” she said. “I was completely out of the loop, so it’s a real honor to think that my performance has been remembered, when I haven’t been trying to make anybody remember it.”
The role in the commercially and critically successful “Gone Girl,” she said, has made her more recognizable to the public — and, she hopes, more bankable in the future. “It’s a nice position to be in, because now when I’m getting on board smaller projects, there’s not such a journey to get the financing.” She paused. “But of course, it’s hard to follow Fincher.”
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Working with the famously demanding director, she said, has “made me much more fearless. I’m much more willing to be daring, I think. And I trust that giving the time and the right environment, you can go deeper and to many more places than you think. And it’s also made me crave a sort of honesty in the business, too. Because one thing about Fincher and Cean Chaffin, his wife and producer, is that you know that they’re gonna give it to you straight the whole time. They’re not going to bullshit you, whether it’s palatable or not. It’s made me crave that kind of honesty in all of my dealings.”
And since she’s devoted to honesty, Pike admitted that she was disappointed that hers was the only nomination for “Gone Girl.”
“I don’t want that to take away from my gratitude for being recognized,” she said, “but I know that I would not be here if it were not for Gillian [Flynn], for Ben [Affleck], for David. If I hadn’t had the lines to say and I hadn’t been directed and I hadn’t had a dance partner like Ben, I would not be worth two hoots.
“It sort of feels wrong, and it sort of feels like I’m stepping on people’s shoulders and reaching for the clouds. Maybe that’s not the diplomatic thing to say, but it feels a little like that, if I’m being honest.”
And then a bird flew into the patio where Pike and her children were staying, and she yelled to her two-year-old to come see the visitor. Once again, it was time to put the actress part aside and be a mom.