BALANCE_MARCH_2020 - 22

COVER STORY ROSAMUND PIKE IIIII

"THE FIRST THING
WE DO IN LIFE IS
TA K E A B R E AT H .
SOMEWHERE
A L O N G T H E R O A D,
W E F O RG E T TO D O
I T. I ' V E D E F I N I T E LY
BEEN HOLDING
M Y B R E AT H !"

played with memorable tenderness by Sam Riley. While Marie can be brusque in her
brilliance, Pierre looks at his wife through patient eyes. "They had the most wonderful
marriage," says Rosamund. "He understood her oddity; he had this wonderful sympathetic
joy at her slight abruptness. He 'got' her completely. The thing that everyone needs is to be
understood. On top of that, they had this absolute involvement in one another's life and
work." She pauses for a moment to collect her thoughts. "If you have that shared creative
vision and it comes to something so extraordinary - imagine that night when they knew
they discovered radium... it brings me to tears. Maybe they weren't as sentimental as I am.
But after thinking about all that work and dogged determination, we felt [the Curies] were
around. It was very palpable and powerful."

CONSCIOUS PILATES
It is because of the genius of Marie Curie that we've given our March issue an "Inspiration"
theme, and so BALANCE wonders what Rosamund does for inspiration. She is currently in
the Czech Republic shooting TV series The Wheel Of Time for Amazon and says: "In Prague,
there are lots of trees; I've always gone to parks. Hampstead Heath, Hyde Park and now
Stromovka Park. Dancing physically gets you out of your head. I've started doing Pilates as
well because I try to take on a new physical thing for each character.
"And it's to do with the breath: the first thing we do in life is take a breath. Somewhere
along the road, we forget to do it. I've definitely been holding my breath. Now so much of
my work comes from that. You don't find a character's voice without taking a breath! Most
of the time we're not contacting the deep emotions because we're holding our breath."
Having children has also had a profound effect on Rosamund's outlook. "A child, up until
about five, only lives in the present. They're a reminder that it's the best place to be. I used
to worry; you never know what life is going to throw at you, and then you have to take it into
work. Now I'm better with that. You just have to be present. If you haven't had enough sleep,
then it's tough. But it's not as catastrophic as it used to be for me. I used to think, 'Everything
is going to go wrong! Everything is going to be a disaster.' Now I'm like, 'OK, the character
will be tired!'" And she laughs. "Like every human is sometimes!"

HAPPY VALLEY
Rosamund is on Instagram - "I'm ashamed to say I haven't looked at it for three months" -
but that's it. BALANCE tells her that she recently went viral on Twitter when someone asked
what Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix did in Joker that Rosamund didn't do in Gone Girl
(46,500 likes and counting), and she beams: "Have they?! I had no idea about that."
Before we depart, we praise her for clearly taking on recent projects for the benefit of her
two children: lending her voice to family shows Moominvalley, Thunderbirds Are Go (can you
imagine a more perfect Lady Penelope?) and Archibald's Next Big Thing. As well as the kids
finding the voices oddly familiar ("She sounds like mummy!"), Rosamund was able to take
her brood out to Helsinki, Finland, for the Moominvalley premiere.
"The Moomins have a lot of the values I've talked about! Moominmamma embodies a lot
of what I believe: welcoming all comers, tolerance with a slight anxiousness under the
surface, and hoping that it'll all go all right. [She has] A great love of family and wondering
what it will be when these young ones fly the nest. It's a wonderful world though, and
teaches adults a lot, too."
Rosamund can even talk with warmth, passion and insight about the Moomins. As
we say, God bless Rosamund Pike.

Radioactive is in cinemas from 20 March; for more with Rosamund
(and The Wheel Of Time), please visit balance.media

BALANCE_MARCH_2020

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