Rosamund Pike reveals 'intense' weight loss she underwent for Gone Girl that turned her body 'into a chemistry lab'
Rosamund Pike’s performance in Gone Girl was instantly iconic, but filming scenes out of order meant that on three separate occasions she had to go through some pretty intense weight loss.
Rosamund has gone on to star in a number of iconic TV and Film roles in the years since Gone Girl, though her latest film Ladies First which comes out on Netflix today, 22 May, has been slammed by critics.
Having not seen a single positive review for her new Netflix film at the time of writing it is a real shame because, as shown in Gone Girl, Rosamund is one of the best actors around by pure talent.
In Gone Girl she starred as Amy, a woman who goes missing leading to her husband Nick, played by be Affleck in the movie, becoming implicated in her disappearance.
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Though the film is a seriously intense watch, her behind-the-scenes preparation for it was pretty intense too.
Pike had to lose 12-15 pounds on three separate occasions, and hired a boxing coach to help her do it
Speaking to Vulture in 2014, Pike revealed the intense preparation she had to do. She said: “I had to gain and lose weight for those scenes three times over! I had to be slimmer in L.A. and heavier in the Ozarks, and then heavier and slimmer in the studio, so I had to do it three times over.
“They scheduled around it, so I had two weeks each time for each fluctuation. It was quite intense.
“It was like turning your body into a chemistry lab, and I couldn’t escape it, the weight loss period. I took time out to get a pedicure, and Extreme Weight Loss! was on the TV. I was like, 'I can’t get away from it!'”
She revealed that she had begun training with a boxing coach due to how efficiently boxers lose weight on tight turnarounds for their fights.
Pike beat out some major names to star as Amy in Gone Girl
The role of Amy in the film was a hotly contested one, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Rosamund was chosen when you see how incredible a performance she managed.
That said, it is still surprising to hear that an earlier version of the movie had Reese Witherspoon in the role after she purchased the rights to the film and ended up a producer.
Add to that the fact that Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Olivia Wilde, Emily Blunt, and Julianne Hough all auditioned for the role, it is an A-List group of names that she beat out for the role.
Speaking about casting Rosamund in the role, director David Fincher told Entertainment Weekly that, despite liking her as an actor, he didn’t really know her
He said you ‘never got a sense of who she was... there was an opacity there and it was interesting.’
Whatever his reasoning, the casting led to an iconic performance that earned Rosamund Pike her first and only Oscar nomination.
Topics: Netflix, TV and Film, Film
Michael Slavin