Posterized: Rosamund Pike
by Nathaniel R
You can see Rosamund Pike's acclaimed performance as a war journalist in A Private War today in movie theaters -- the movie's now gone wide. Pike, who is 39, was born in Hammersmith London, the only child of musician parents. We've been fans of Pike since her slyly terrific work in An Education (2009). Though she's headlined one huge hit (Gone Girl) it still seems like she's waiting for that one role / star vehicle to cement those career gains, and make people remember her name, doesn't it? If you were her agent or management what would you be fighting for right about now? I know I'd immediately put the kabosh on 'the girl' in male-driven action ensemble pictures and fight for more complex female leads -- why not another play? She hasn't been onstage in quite a while.
I'd also be looking for a drama which flirts with mysterious woman elements to capitalize on her Gone Girl fame and her sometimes deliciously remote aura without attempting to recreate that film. Just make sure it's a juicy role because she's up to the task.
After the jump all the posters from her feature film filmography. How many have you seen? And did you remember that she was in them (since you probably saw a few before Gone Girl!)
Act One - Who is that?
DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002) - feature film debut! Pike is one of only 3 Bond girls to ever go on to become an Oscar nominated actor; the others are Halle Berry in Monster's Ball and Kim Basinger in LA Confidential who both won. No former Bond girl has ever been a multiple nominee.
PROMISED LAND (2004)
THE LIBERTINE (2004) - BIFA win for Best Supporting Actress
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2005) -London Critics Circle nomination Best Supporting Actress
DOOM (2005)
FRACTURE (2007)
FUGITIVE PIECES (2007)
AN EDUCATION (2009) -BIFA & London Critics Circle nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and SAG nomination Best Ensemble
SURROGATES (2009)
Act Two -Oh, yeah it's whatsher name from Pride & Prejudice and An Education. She's good!
BURNING PALMS (2010)
BARNEY'S VERSION (2010) - London Critics Circle - Best Actress nominee
MADE IN DAGENHAM (2010) - BIFA & London Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress nominee
JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN (2011)
THE BIG YEAR (2011)
WRATH OF THE TITANS (2012)
JACK REACHER (2012)
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW (2013) first time receiving top billing
THE WORLD'S END (2013)
A LONG WAY DOWN (2014)
HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS (2014)
WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY (2014) top billing
Act Three - Gone Girl and its aftermath!
GONE GIRL (2014) - Oscar & SAG & Globe nominations for Best Actress (and lots of other minor nominations and wins)
RETURN TO SENDER (2015) top billing
A UNITED KINGDOM (2016)
THE MAN WITH THE IRON HEART (2017)
HOSTILES (2017)
BEIRUT (2018)
7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE (2018) top billing
A PRIVATE WAR (2018) top billing
Next up for Pike is a relationship comedy series State of the Union with Chris O'Dowd and she's already completed filming two for 2019: she plays Marie Curie in Radioactive with Sam Riley as her husband Pierre Curie and she's in the ensemble of a crime drama Three Seconds starring Joel Kinnaman, Common, and Clive Owen which is about an ex con infiltrating the mob.
Reader Comments (35)
Minnie Driver is also an Oscar nominated Bond girl from Goldeneye.
She's incredible but has only gotten to show it a couple of times. I know she had campaigned for Weisz' role in The Favourite, it's a pity she couldn't have landed that.
Does Basinger count as an official Bond girl, given her movie?
I appreciate how RP often comes off as the smartest person in the room by a country mile. So I find it ironic that my favorite performance of hers is her daffy creation in An Education. It takes smarts to play dumb that well.
Halle was already an Oscar Winner by the time DAD came out,Pike was ace in Barney's Version but was some what backgrounded but a campaign for her didn't happen.
The Die Another Day poster looks like it was shot at a costume fitting.
I've seen 8. I don't remember a thing about Fracture and The Libertine, but I know I've seen them.
I think she's very good but she has very bad taste.
She still should've won the Oscar for Gone Girl. She was fucking incredible in that film.
Feel like Rosamund should be somewhere on the Prediction charts. Have to think her chances are better than Maggie Gyllenhal's. The World's End was my favorite film of Pike's.
@thevoid99 - yup... absolutely fucking fearless.
Why do all of her 2018 films look and feel like the same movie?
I’ve seen 11.
I have tremendous respect for her amazing ability to get a part just right. In other hands, the parts she’s gotten could have been bland, caricatures, over the top, forgettable.
In An Education, she perks the film right up. In Barney’s Version, she has to play a woman you could fall deeply in love with your whole life long. Who can do that? But she did, so loveable.
In Pride and Prejudice, she plays the “other sister”. She provides a graceful complement to Keira Knightly, while also having an interior life of her own, just trembling under the surface.
And yes, Gone Girl. The part with a million pitfalls, that she navigates incisively, scarily combining sex, humour, and intelligence.
I've seen three:
Die Another Day
An Education
Gone Girl
I've liked what I've seen, but she hasn't been in very many films I've been interested in watching.
I've seen 14 of her films, and find her elusive, intelligent, and amazingly beautiful. I wish she had won for "Gone Girl" but that year was Julianne Moore's year. Her abilities in comedies should not be overlooked. "What We did on our Holiday", "An Education", "World's End" show that she has chops when it comes to comedy.
I have such an affection for "Pride and Prejudice" because I love how natural and graceful she is in every scene, especially the dance scenes. (What a cast ! )
I hope "A Private War" gets a release that allows it to be seen and considered by critics and awards bodies.
I have seen 8 but only remember her in 4 (marked *) and thought she was good in those.
Die Another Day, The Libertine, Pride and Prejudice, An Education *, Jack Reacher *, A Long Way Down, Gone Girl *, A United Kingdom *.
Just 4:
Die Another Day
Pride and Prejudice
Gone Girl
Jack Reacher
She is cold, cold, cold. Which was perfect for Gone Girl. Otherwise, eh.
Yup she should have won for Gone Girl.
Please at least nominate her again for A Private War which is already getting great reviews for her performance.
Rosamund is an ok actress, I wouldn't consider her in line with my favourites currently working. While I'm not a massive fan of her GG performance there are moments that still stick in my mind where I was blown away.
I've seen 9 of them, remember The Libertine has amazing performances from Pike and Morton and it was right after that one that I lost interest in Johnny Depp work; She's great in An Education ( but who isn't , really ? Sandra Bullock, please return Carey Mulligan Oscar); Phenomenal in Gone Girl, just brilliant, kind of a performance in a character that I could only see Sharon Stone ( in the aughts) or Charlize Theron delivering when I read the novel. Solid in A United Kingdom and again superb in the rather boring Hostiles.
I've seen several of these and, while I get that it may be an unexpected preference, I'm pretty sure my favorite performance of hers (give or take An Education) was in The World's End - which I guess means I wish she'd go back to doing more comedies.
I've seen 6 of her movies:
Die Another Day (2002)
Pride And Prejudice (2005)
Doom (2005)
Barney's Version (2010)
Gone Girl (2014)
A United Kingdom (2016)
She's more than capable of breaking into the top tier of current actresses. The trailer for A Private War looks promising.
Except for Gone Girl she seems to be in a lot of terrible movies- Doom?!
I've liked her a lot in a few things. No way she should've beaten Julianne Moore that year. Her performance in Gone Girl was too robotic and one-note.
I've only seen 5, but I'm a fan. She would be a stellar Emma Frost.
I've seen 12 - (Fascinating in her latest 7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE btw as no-one mentioned it yet) She is extraordinary, extremely diverse and for me got a pinch of the old Hollywood star power (Grace Kelly) aura - and I do not understand at all why she's not at least in 3rd tier on the prediction index - ... you left her out completely - is there a reason ? The A Private War trailer looks utterly promising ...
What a strange career, but Hollywood has so seldom known what to do with women who read as ‘cold’. I’d love to see her in a more complex period piece, something akin to The House of Mirth or Daniel Deronda. Could also see her returning to TV for something more interesting too, because so many of her recent roles look so thankless on paper.
A Private War is now released and critically acclaimed
Better reviewed than Destroyer, actually
Surely, therefore, never-rewarded Pike's chances are higher than Kidman's and she should be placed on the predictions chart, right?
I have seen 4. I knew she was something special in Die Another Day. She just about stole the show!
I do worry about her career though. After a performance like the one she did in Gone Girl, I am convinced Hollywood won't know what to do with her. She can't be boxed into a type easily.
@Remy- She was up for that role in X-Men First Class but was passed for January Jones, since Pike had already played a similar character (Miranda Frost) in another action movie (Die Another Day).
I've seen seven of her movies. Though I don't go out of my way to specifically see anything she's in per se, every time I do see Pike in a film I'm reminded of how good she really is. She somehow manages to elevate even very bad movies (Doom, Wrath of the Titans) and can walk away unscathed.
Remy's suggestion that she be Emma Frost is a fabulous one! She'd be an excellent fit for that role - gorgeous, emitting a Hitchcockian icy blonde vibe, highly intelligent and deeply conflicted anti-heroine. Her "cold" on screen persona would be a hand in glove fit.
I'm very interested to see how "State of the Union" shakes out - Pike can definitely do comedy, and O'Dowd is pretty much forever in my good graces like everyone who was in "The IT Crowd". Plus, written by Nick Hornby and directed by Stephen Frears? Interesting.
I've seen her in seven films, including Beirut which I just watched tonight. Not sure why she took the role in it, as it offers very little for her to do. It's only Jon Hamm's character that has any development to it.
Although I thought she was extraordinary in Gone Girl, I don't find her an actress who's easy to connect with. She's very good, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see a film just because she's in it. But having said that, I am looking forward to seeing A Private War.
Marie Curie huh?? Hmmm at certain angle, she does remind me o Greer stiff upper lips Garson!
Maybe she can dye her hair a flaming red n play Garson at her peak in the early 40s?
Dancin' Dan - made me lol it's so true all of her recent films look the exact same
She really should have won for Gone Girl
I saw that film FOUR times in the cinema (I haven't seen something that many times since I was a child I think?) and aside from Fincher's masterful direction it was mainly due to have spectacularly she nailed that part
I have always liked her. World's End, Barney's Version, and Made in Dagenham are my favorites. She's often the best thing in some of those others.
And like her countrywomen/men, Emily Blunt and Richard Armitage, she is a cellist.
Whatever happens with the rest of her career (she hasn’t had the post-Gone Girl career a lot of us hoped she would), Amazing Amy will go down in history as one of the most iconic movie characters of all time. She was given the role of a lifetime and she aced it. A legacy role.