Most actors who finds themselves lucky enough to work under the direction of David Fincher come to learn firsthand that with it comes a high level of demand for greatness and repetitive takes to perfect such critical acclaimed blockbusters like The Social Network and Fight Club. In Fincher’s latest hit Gone Girl, leading actress Rosamund Pike spoke with Vulture about taking on the role of the complex titular character Amy and the rapid weight loss and weight gain that came along with.
“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,” Pike shared. “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.” Adding, “To a certain extent, my body cooperated, but I don’t know how good it is for you. It’s probably better to be gaining weight steadily over a long period of time, as with the baby.”
As Pike explains, her transformation for her role as the wife of Ben Affleck was all too consuming. “There was so much preparation for all this, so much preparation, in a way, that I never really clocked off. There was always something to think about with Amy. I had to transform the obvious way, and then I had wigs, I had to do the schizophrenic weight-gain/loss, I had to change my voice … Not just change my accent. Amy has specific different voices. Because there’s Diary Amy, and then there’s the other voice-over, where the vitriol comes out and you hear her critique of her own gender.”
“He’s definitely asking you to get to the point where you’re divesting all your values,” Pike said when discussing working with Fincher who is notorious for his meticulous work on set and his need to film numerous takes. “All I know is if you tell an actor they’ve got to get this in the next 20 minutes, that’s a surefire way to make sure they clam up and get tense and try too hard. He’s getting you to the point where you’re just sort of rooted in being, and you’re not trying. We want to do well, so we try too hard. It is a curse, so that’s what you try to get rid of as much as possible.”
Gone Girl is currently out in theaters.
