How Ben Affleck Once Nearly Gave Rosamund Pike a Concussion While Filming ‘Gone Girl’
Gone Girl was a taxing but rewarding film for everyone involved, including actor Rosamund Pike. Pike saw her career take off like never before after starring in the David Fincher project. However, there was one scene where both Pike and Fincher nearly took things too far.
How Ben Affleck nearly gave his ‘Gone Girl’ co-star a concussion
Both David Fincher and Rosamund Pike were dedicated to making Gone Girl the best movie it can be. Pike, in particular, was prepared to go the distance for the role both mentally and physically. In an interview with Variety, Pike explained how she physically transformed for the role. All in all, she both gained and lost 13 pounds for the movie.
“I was eating crap, eating well, eating crap, eating well,” Pike shared. “Bulking up and leaning out.”
Fincher also did his part to make the film as good as it can be. This included repeating several takes of certain scenes, which Fincher is notorious for doing in his movies. For Gone Girl, however, doing that many takes proved especially challenging for Pike. In one of the scenes in the film, Ben Affleck’s character is supposed to get physical with Pike’s. The scene in question had to be done a couple of times. However, eventually, caution had to be taken when Pike felt herself getting too bruised up for the scene.
“I think probably around take 18 of getting my head bashed against the wall, I literally saw stars,” she said, with Variety noting the scene nearly gave her a concussion. Eventually, even the assistant director had to intervene.
But Pike didn’t take offense to Fincher having her constantly repeat scenes.
“He’s not doing it because he thinks you’re crap,” she said. “He’s giving you this gift, and allowing you to divest all your baggage.”
Rosamund Pike had to go to a hospital after getting injured in ‘The Wheel of Time’
Gone Girl wasn’t the only time Pike was almost hurt while filming. In her new hit series, Amazon’s The Wheel of Time, the star experienced a much more serious injury. One that left her temporarily hospitalized. The actor’s hand was sliced open while filming a fight scene. According to Hello, Pike’s co-star, Daniel Henney, was responsible for the on-set mishap.
“The second week of shooting, Rosamund and I, we mistimed a step,” he said. “I use a real sword for balance and I sliced her hand and she screamed, and she fell, and she jumped into an ambulance and I jumped into a car and we hit the nearest emergency room in the countryside in the Czech Republic.”
Pike had to get an X-ray to further investigate the extent of her injury.
“We spent our second week together trying to find an X-Ray tech to get her bone X-rayed to make sure our show wasn’t totally screwed and it was a real bonding moment, no pun intended,” she said. “It was a real chance for us to get to know each other. Long story short, everything turned out fine but it was a special night.”
Rosamund Pike sliced the throat of a pig carcass to prepare for ‘Gone Girl’
As viewers may know, Gone Girl takes Pike to some dark places mentally and physically. Because of this, the Doom actor went to great lengths to prepare for her role.
“I had no idea how much force you needed to slice someone’s throat,” Pike told Collider. “I actually went to a butcher and asked them if they wouldn’t mind me just using a box cutter on a pig carcass, just to understand what it would be like. They let me do it, so anyone buying meat that day would have seen me behind the counter, with serious intent, finding out the mechanics of doing that. That was purely for research purposes.”
