Ranking Rosamund Pike’s 10 best films in order of greatness
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The one film role Rosamund Pike is “embarrassed” of
Progressively working her way up the Hollywood ladder from role to role, Rosamund Pike has steadily become one of the formidable actors in modern Hollywood thanks to roles in David Fincher’s Gone Girl, Jack Reacher and The World’s End from Edgar Wright. Elevated by her performance in Fincher’s Oscar-nominated modern classic, Pike now enjoys roles from across the landscape of film and television.
After working on several TV series during the formative years of her career, Pike burst on the cinematic stage in 2002 in the final Pierce Brosnan James Bond film Die Another Day where she played the mysterious fencer Miranda Frost. An understandably intimidating introduction to the silver screen, Pike made her appearance in the film a springboard for her later career, with the high-profile role making her a famous face in the modern industry.
Starring in the film at the age of 23, Pike told EW: “Everything was new to me, everything. There’s so much mythology around the Bond films, there’s so much riding on it”. Swooping her off her feet as a young actor, Pike added, “From the very first car ride I took to the audition, in a Jaguar, I thought, ‘This is like a magic carpet into a new life,’” explaining that her newfound fame was both a gift and a struggle during her early years in the industry.
Following her appearance in the 20th James Bond film, Pike went on to feature in The Libertine alongside Johnny Depp, as well as Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightley before she returned to big-budget entertainment with an adaptation of the video game Doom in 2005. Starring as part of an all-star cast that included the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Karl Urban, Richard Brake and Dexter Fletcher, Doom flopped upon its release though has since collected a cult following for its bombastic themes.
In a recent interview with Collider, Pike discussed how her expectations and reaction to the film changed once it was received negatively by the public, stating: “I feel partly to blame in that respect”. Continuing, the actor added, “I think I failed just through ignorance and innocence to fully get a picture of what Doom meant to fans at that point. I wasn’t a gamer, I didn’t understand, if I knew what I know now I would’ve dived right into all of that and got fully immersed in it like I do now”.
Where video game adaptations such as Doom, Mortal Kombat and Super Mario Bros. were pumped out in the ‘90s and early 2000s with little consideration as to the final quality of the film. Today, video games are thought to be a crucial resource for cinematic adaptation. Whilst many video game adaptations such as Assassins Creed still falter, modern film remakes like Tomb Raider, Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokemon: Detective Pikachu are demonstrating that such films can indeed succeed.
Concluding her thoughts on her time on the film, Rosamund Pike added: “I feel embarrassed really, I feel embarrassed that I was ignorant of what it meant and I didn’t know how to go about finding out because the internet wasn’t the place it is now for the fans to speak up. I wouldn’t have known where to find them, I do now”.
Thankfully, the actor revealed that she’s learnt from her past mistakes and undertook plenty of research for her most recent role in Amazon’s The Wheel of Time. Check out her conversation with Collider, below.