Here, Pike pays tribute to the world created by writer-directorEmerald Fennell, and its unpredictable outcome.
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ROSAMUND PIKE: No.
If youre overdressed, youre wrong, or if youre underdressed.
Rosamund Pike in ‘Saltburn.‘Amazon Prime Videos
You are somehow wrong and you dont quite know why or how.
There would always be people who would say to me, Oh, you got some work?
Youve got a film?
Rosamund Pike and Barry Keoghan.MGM/Everett Collection
After three days they smell.
PIKE: Oh my god.
That could come straight out of Elspeths mouth!
And she wouldve thought she was saying something funny.
PIKE: Well it was a bit like when I first met David Fincher.
Theyre not ever having a general conversation.
Theyve absolutely got an idea and theyre seeing whether you fit.
And there was a certain point where clearly Emerald believed wholeheartedly that I fit.
Its in relation to all those people.
Theres a version of Elspeth, but the specificity of Elspeth is because of everybody else.
DEADLINE: When we first meet Elspeth its her and Pamela gossiping about Oliver behind his back.
Was that a bit of improvisation just between you and Carey?
PIKE: Yeah, it was.
It was the time that Keith Richards was reported to have snorted his fathers ashes…
DEADLINE: Oh my god, yes.
PIKE: Which was later discovered, I think, to be not true.
But Elspeth was like, Oh, of course I knew Keith.
Of course, he always said hed snort his fathers ashes.
When we were in Mustique, he had his ashes with him.
He offered all of us his ashes.
Shes usually getting any story and placing herself in the center of it.
And it was really fun to just live in that shallow space.
She cares very deeply about these characters, shes always so funny.
But underneath, you realize she feels and cares hugely and is devastated by what happens in the film.
you’re free to never see a mothers grief on film.
Its just too awful.
But that doesnt mean I didnt have to play it [off-camera].
Thats how she as an actress understands what an actor needs.
I couldnt have just said, Darling, come away.
We just see her once the shock has set in.
And so an emotion is a terrifying thing.
DEADLINE: Its embarrassing in that kind of culture to show yourself, its sort of shameful.
Its just insane, isnt it?
DEADLINE: I think its generational avoidance.
PIKE: Which has become, to show an emotion is self-centered.
DEADLINE: Like caring about acting.
Never show too much care.
PIKE: Keep everything light, not caring, not trying too hard, but behave perfectly.
DEADLINE: Just a tradition to make people feel excluded if they get it wrong.
PIKE: I wonder how it plays…
Does the same creature exist in America?
And some of them youd think, My god, what is that?
Thats somebodys bottom, or some really intimate part of the body!
And it would actually only be a shoulder.
I remember being very uncomfortable when I first saw the film.
I couldnt really watch myself at all.
I hated how I found it uncomfortable the way Elspeth was…
I dont know quite what it was, I was made to feel quite uncomfortable.
I think the camera is so personal, the lens is so close and you really see everything.
And our editor was very, very fine and detailed.
So yeah, I was shocked and very uncomfortable, the first time I saw it, for sure.
And I regret never having the experience that others will have, being taken on the ride.
But maybe, sometimes that can come in a few years time.
DEADLINE: What about in the script?
PIKE: I think the script fooled many people.
I dont think we did know.
She just said, Oh, Ive written another scene.
I was like, who writes that?
DEADLINE: Its so good.
PIKE: How does that even come out of you?
Because its exactly what it is, a hand job in a haystack golden big boy summer.
Everything that comes out of her mouth, or out of her pen, its just specifically delicious.
