W Mag has a profile of Gone Girl Rosamund Pike, detailing how she got the part, and how surprised she was when she got it:
Fincher suggested that they get to know each other via Skype, and Pike had to join a gym near Glasgow just to secure an Internet connection. She had not been given the script but had started reading the book, and she assumed that Fincher was talking to many actresses about the role. After several weeks of conversation, Fincher asked if Pike wanted to fly to St. Louis, where he was scouting locations. “I said, ‘I’ll swim to St. Louis,’ ” Pike recalled as she ate a french fry. “We met there for two days.” Other than Ben Affleck, who was up for the part of Nick Dunne, the boyish, smarter-than-he-looks husband, no other actor had been cast. Weeks after returning to Scotland, Pike received a text message from Fincher, saying, “You have the part,” which she accidentally erased. “The only evidence I have that I got the call to play Amy is a selfie of me jumping in the rain in the Highlands. I look both happy and thoroughly daunted—the whole ‘You got the best gig in years’ scenario gives me the creeps.” She paused. “But then again, I’m a very hard worker, and maybe people who have underestimated me or just thought I looked good will say they were wrong.”
She reminds me of Kristin Scott Thomas in her early days to a certain degree; warm and icy at the same time, if that makes sense. It’s a unique combination that makes them both riveting to watch on the screen–you just can’t take your eyes off of them because they do such subtle things with their performances that you don’t want to miss anything.
I love her in films like Pride and Prejudice and An Education where her co-stars got the nomination but this time if any actor is going to nominated it will be Pike because of how great the role is. I do worry about the film because of this mysterious change they are making to the third act which is where the Amy character shines and hopefully they embrace fully what makes the character great and not make it all about how we feel towards the Nick character. I feel this change will either have the Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs) or Close (Fatal Attraction) effect where one is a winner and the other is a nominee.
Such a great character actress (Pride and Prejudice, An Education, Made in Dagenham, Barney’s Version) with such criminally underappreciated leading lady potential, I cannot wait for her big breakthrough role in this !
P.s. As much as I LOVE Nicole Kidman, seeing these pictures I cannot help but wonder what utterly perfect casting Pike could have been as Grace Kelly.
This was smart casting — even in the trailer, Amy/Rosamund are very mysterious and far away from the audience. Smart decision to take someone who worked, but had not received that big break yet, and thus all the attention of being an IT Girl
I hope this is her huge breakout movie. I mean, I know she’s had other “breakout” films, but hopefully this one will make her a household name.
Loved her since Fracture.