Quotes from Rosamund Pike

Feminism will never reach the next stage until women stop competing with each other on the level of looks.

It's not easy casting the men. You have to go gingerly, but you have to approach the right man at the right time because men don't want to play second fiddle to a woman. That's the truth.

I've got friends who are pyrotechnics who do big fire shows, so I'm really fascinated by that.

I'd like to do Nicole Diver in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Tender Is the Night,' if that ever gets made.

I think, you know, as an actor we get these terribly sort of pretentious ideas in our heads. We try to take everything very seriously at first, you know, until we lighten up, we get onboard, and have a laugh.

You just never know who's going to have chemistry. You can put two of the sexiest people in the world together, and they could be completely flat.

I didn't know where film came from when I was under 10. I just thought I'd be a stage actress. I always knew money would be tough, but that never frightened me.

I'm kind of desperately looking for those things that will... you know, sort of show my wilder side, in a way, my much more irreverent, badly behaved side.

And I like the look on people's faces when I say I'm doing this movie called Pride and Prejudice and they kind of smile, and then I say I'm in a movie called Doom and they kind of do a double take and try and put the two things together. And they never quite manage to.

There are lots and lots of good actors out there, and often it's just luck if what you bring to the table syncs with the director's vision.

If someone makes you feel wrong-footed, you're unlikely to find them witty.

Any actress - goodness, we're lucky to be working. We all know that. There are few parts, a few good ones.

I just hope and pray that I never get threatened by younger actresses coming up behind me. I hope I won't, but you never know what's going to hit you.

I think when you are an only child, parents are more protective and fearful because they've only got one of you. I was not allowed to do a lot of things that, if I'd been, say, number three, I would have.

You want to make entertainment sometimes, and sometimes you want to make art, because I think the way we understand ourselves as human beings is through art, and the way we process emotions - I know I do - is through recognizing experiences on screen or in novels or in paintings.

What I find sexy is when someone's having fun and able to look right back at you.

I can read significance into tiny, tiny things. If I'd met someone 10 years ago and not seen them again, and then I suddenly bumped into them, I'd feel that that was 'meant,' or there's a fate, you know?

I do know that the key to anything good is feeling relaxed and free. That's the main thing that you can offer yourself as an actor.

I have worked with three female first assistant directors - on 'Hostiles,' 'Gone Girl,' and a short film, 'The Human Voice,' and they have all been exceptional.

If you told my 13-year-old self that one day I'd be talking about how Tom Cruise and I had good chemistry, she'd think you were completely mad.

I decided to finish at Oxford because I looked up at the top of the buildings - the gargoyles and spires - and decided to stay.

I think you tend to try, during the time you've got off, to forget about the film. It was such a total world. I mean, the sets were claustrophobic, and as soon as you were on there, you were right back into it.

I certainly relish the chance to play a woman who didn't have to conform in any way ever to expected behavior or desirable behavior or attractive behavior.

It is interesting to break all the rules. I'm not married, I have a baby, and it feels infinitely more right.