The actor on bringing one of Barack Obama’s favourite books to TV, going clubbing in Berlin and her fascination with espionage
Hammersmith-born Rosamund Pike, 44, studied English literature at Oxford before her breakthrough role as a Bond girl in Die Another Day. Subsequent film roles include Pride & Prejudice, Made in Dagenham, Jack Reacher and A Private War. She was Oscar-nominated for Gone Girl, won a Golden Globe for I Care a Lot and an Emmy for State of the Union. Her latest project is a 10-part BBC audio drama People Who Knew Me. She lives in Prague with her partner, businessman Robie Uniacke, and their two sons.
What attracted you to People Who Knew Me?
It’s a remarkable story and one I felt emotionally drawn to. Anyone who’s ever told a lie quickly finds that in order to support it, you have to tell another, then another. Here is a woman in her early 20s who has been lying and having an affair. At the point of the cataclysmic horror of 9/11, she has a job in the World Trade Center. She realises that everyone will assume she was at work that morning and will have died, so sees an opportunity to escape. There’s a curiosity in all of us: “What happens if I go out to get a pint of milk and don’t ever come home?” Or maybe that’s not in all of us and I’ve just exposed myself! In her absence, her loved ones have a funeral, mourn her and rebuild their lives. Meanwhile, she jets off to California and adopts a new persona. On screen I’d only get to play the new version of her, in her 40s. But because it’s audio, I can be the girl in her 20s, too.
