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Home , David Fincher, Gone Girl (novel), Rosamund Pike

WORLD EXCLUSIVE ON-SET ACCESS HOW PUT AND THROUGH THE RELATIONSHIP

FROM HELL IN w o r d s NEV PIERCE

62 EMPIRE OCTOBER 2014 empireonline.com OCTOBER 2014 EMPIRE 63 “I WANT IT TO BE MORALLY REPELLENT.” DAVID FINCHER

WANT TO MAKE didn’t discuss plot or structure. “It was BRIEFING adaptation process wondering when she’d since 2002’s , but still • Above left: David finger at everybody. It used to be just actors is talking about a lot of different things. a date movie that results more about the nature of the characters, be replaced as screenwriter, but stayed the remains oddly unknowable, is probably Fincher directs — not just actors, anyone in the public Hopefully, the big thing is this idea of who Rosamund Pike as in at least 15 million who they were, the nature of marriage. One GONE course. “I think he really respects writers, tired of the Grace Kelly comparison the imperilled Amy. eye, politicians, whatever. But even we construct these facades to be and how divorces.” David Fincher thing we clicked on immediately was we coming from a writer,” she says (Fincher’s but, sod it, there are worse people to be Above: , politicians — look at the way politicians exhausting it becomes keeping them up.” grins. The 51 year-old filmmaker — grey- wanted to keep the dark humour. I think GIRL late father, Jack, was a journalist and compared to. Fincher had seen her in who plays Nick’s sister are groomed for the camera now and In his sparse office, at the studio, Margo, and Neil Patrick flecked beard, two types of glasses, stood on a lot of directors would be very nervous author). It also helped, no doubt, that she Pride & Prejudice, and Harris, who plays Amy’s understand about performance.” Fincher shows Empire a scene on his set at RED Studios Hollywood, December about maintaining that. I knew from RELEASED: October 3 has a journalist’s facility with deadlines, Jack Reacher and liked that he couldn’t creepy ex, Desi, during Understanding image and what it is to laptop, from near the finale. Holy shit. 2013 — may no longer be the punkish MTV all his other films that he wouldn’t be cutting and being unsentimental over nail down her age or her nature — he cast a table-read. be in the public eye is part of what made Gone Girl is going to reveal an aspect DIRECTOR: David Fincher who put Gwyneth’s head in a box, afraid to allow that sort of mischievous, your creation. (“She was so prepared to for her “opacity” and the need for whoever Affleck right for the other part. As did his of Affleck haven’t fully seen before. but he still delights in making mischief. dark, nasty humour in it.” Gone Girl is STARRING: Rosamund slaughter darlings,” says Fincher. “It was played Amy to be “a pretty deep well”. inherent likability. As Flynn says, “Like, Walking back to the set, Fincher talks “I’m not as contrarian as I used to be,” he ruthlessly funny, though it’ll be intriguing Pike, Ben Affleck, Tyler shocking.”) Indeed, the slow death of For her, working with Fincher was an ‘I’d still maybe grab a beer with him. He about why he cast the Argo star. “Ben was Perry, , journalism formed part of the novel — obvious appeal, but so was the theme. may have killed his wife, but, you know...’” dying to do it and I originally thought, contends. “I don’t know that my work is to see how many people get the joke Carrie Coon, Scoot really a reaction against anything anymore. (how many people, initially, realised Fight McNairy, both the leads have been laid off from “That aspect of marriage as a con game, You imagine that part of the appeal for ‘He’s too big a movie star’... But then It’s just, you know, ‘What movie would Club was a comedy?). Months later, over magazines and move to Middle America or whatever,” she says. “The idea that Fincher, too, was taking that nice young I just thought, ‘He is that guy.’ Watch him I want to see that no-one is going to make?’” breakfast in Soho in , Fincher will STORY: When Amy Dunne from New York. we perform a sort of ideal version of man Ben Affleck and doing terrible things do it. He’s so much smarter than he kind (Pike) goes missing, Given the success of the book, talk about trying to define the tone of this presumed dead, a media ourselves that the other person wants. We with him. “I liked the idea of the audience of lets on. I think he would much rather someone, somewhere, would likely have movie, and how he settled on the 1977 circus gathers around her perhaps belie our true nature in order to coming in going, ‘I know what this is,’ and have you discount him. And I think that’s given Gone Girl a crack. Though it’s National Lampoon album “That’s Not husband Nick (Affleck) about the fate of these perform the ideal.” Editing oneself, says then it goes horrendously off the rails — what Nick does. When in doubt: grin.” — and before long, he THE FILM IS unlikely they’d have kept Funny, That’s Sick”. “We were constantly finds himself the prime two storytellers, as the beautiful, bright Pike, is something most twentysomethings for everybody involved,” says the director. On the stage, the scene is Nick exploring to adapt her novel, or made the already trying to walk that line. I want it to work suspect. So… did he or Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) disappears she knows — “the sort of “I think that’s the thing that puts you in the aftermath of Amy’s disappearance — sinister source material even more and live in the area of slightly tongue-in- didn’t he? on her fifth wedding anniversary and her generation” — are more comfortable with lockstep with the protagonist. Unlike The either trying to solve it, or spinning a line troubling. This is a thriller that grips, but cheek, but also morally repellent.” OOH, I’VE READ THIS husband Nick (Ben Affleck) is suspected of than people of her age (her indeterminate Game (his third feature), where you never to his sister, Margo (Carrie Coon). You also insinuates — it gets into your spine. Flynn’s book is almost relentlessly BOOK! Good for you. So her murder. As the media scrum intensifies vintage is actually 1979). “When you talk had a chance to get ahead of it. I think will get to decide. He opens a package and “If you had asked me who I wanted punishing in its twists and tension, but you’ll know that author and Nick endures the ire of everyone, to someone in their thirties they find it that was the mistake of it. The fun of it sits down in weary silence. It is, roughly, Gillian Flynn (who wrote to direct Gone Girl, it would have been also startlingly insightful on relationships the script) structured it including his own family, the film slips into a bit more troubling.” for the filmmaker is not the fun of it for take 26 when the chair collapses. There’s David,” says Flynn, who worked for and the images we present to strangers, around parallel ‘Him’ to show how the couple met- It was this notion that formed the basis the audience. I think the fun of this movie a hush, as Affleck picks himself up. Then before breaking intimates and even ourselves. Plenty of and ‘Her’ first-person cute and then fell apart. The roles required of many conversations with Fincher. “David is, ‘Oh, I get what...’, ‘He’s likable’, ‘He — “I should stop eating!” — laughter. through as a novelist. When they first met, people got it: more than two million narratives. an everyman and someone ethereal. and I talked a lot about living in an age of couldn’t have...’ and then you go down Fincher shouts over, with reference to

Fincher had read her initial script, but they copies sold. She spent a good deal of the Pike, who has been in the public eye Auerbach/Contour Images by Getty Frederic Pike:Rosamumd Russo. John Affleck: Ben page: Previous rampant narcissism. And he’s pointing a the rabbit hole and you realise that this his leading man’s superhero training >

64 EMPIRE OCTOBER 2014 empireonline.com subscribe at www.empireonline.com/sub OCTOBER 2014 EMPIRE 65 • It’s in his kiss: Ben Affleck’s Nick embraces Pike’s Amy.

BEN AFFLECK ON PLAYING ROSAMUND PIKE ON NICK, DATE MOVIE DIVORCE PLAYING AMY, DAMN GOOD AND ROSAMUND PIKE… ADVICE AND BEN AFFLECK…

Fincher wants Gone Girl to be a date movie that Fincher wants Gone Girl to be a date movie that could cause divorce. What would be your actual could cause divorce. What would be your actual ideal date movie? ideal date movie? I actually think this is the perfect date movie, not because I think Bond is the classic date movie. I mean, I’d probably I think it’ll result in divorce — I think that’s just David’s be more likely to see or Let The Right One fantasy — but because it’s the kind of movie that a In… I remember the worst date movie I saw was a Lukas husband and wife could talk about afterwards. Because Moodysson film. It was about the trafficking of girls: I think a man and a woman would have different takes Lilya 4-Ever. A catastrophically bad choice for a date. on what happens. Like, genuinely, it touches different primal buttons on men than it does on women. And so “IT WILL PUSH DIFFERENT If you had a series of books named after you — like Gone rather than just coming out like, “Yeah, that thing blew Girl’s Amazing Amy — what would they be called? up, huh?” “Yeah, it sure did,” you know, you could really You’d want to be, you know, inspiring literature for small have a discussion. The last time I was in a movie that PRIMAL BUTTONS.” BEN AFFLECK girls: Revolutionary Rosamund or something. But that’s I thought polarised men and women in an interesting just not a good title. Ridiculous Rosamund! But I think way was Chasing Amy. That was quite some time ago. Rosamund doesn’t really work. So I think I’d probably go regime. “It’s muscle mass!” to the benefits being Bruce Wayne might to cast you as the uncaring, murderous continues in the close-up.” That seems to for Pike. It’s probably just a downhill slope from there... If you had a series of books named after you — like Gone A few more takes and Affleck joins us bring to his attempts to continue directing husband or as the femme fatale, whatever do it. One more take — “More miserable, Girl’s Amazing Amy — what would they be called? at the monitor. adult-orientated dramas, although there’s it is. They like to paint with brush strokes, Ben!” — and they’re done for the day. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? That is too hard of a question! Asking one to reflect “Ah, you’re the journalist? So I can no sense he’s slumming it with Batman in easily digestible narratives. I like the way Don’t let other people’s panic become your panic. I go on their self in that way. Like, it would just give way too look forward to my chair collapsing being V Superman: Dawn Of Justice or the that’s a nice surrogate for the way the world back to it again and again. You know, you’re surrounded much away about what I think of myself to answer that! the centre of the piece?” potentially pulpy Gone Girl. This is a itself demands we play certain roles. To THE FOLLOWING by people who are pent up about something and you just Absolutely. bloke who is passionate about Midnight buck those is to endure a not inconsiderable afternoon, Fincher is introduced to a guest: say, “Okay, that’s their panic.” What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? “As it should be...” Run as well as La Règle Du Jeu. The pull amount of pressure and strain.” “This is David, he’s directing this thing.” Don’t give up. He indicates Fincher. “David just acts here was primarily, no doubt, working There’s a knock on the door. Affleck is “Hardly... Ultimately, I’ll get the blame.” Who has been the biggest influence on your life abusive in front of journalists.” with Fincher, but the exploration of long- needed on set. We wander into the sunlight The scene sees Affleck reacting to a TV outside of your parents? Who has been the biggest influence on your life “Yeah,” says the director. “Normally term relationships was of interest, while it and then through to the dim stage. With talk interview his character has done, trying to I think my other half (Robie Uniacke) is an extraordinary outside of your parents? I just shoot two or three takes.” was pretty obvious he’d relate to the idea of theme finished, he smiles at the other shift the burden of suspicion. Fincher turns man who makes me think in a sort of radical way. He’s I’ve had a few big influences the last ten years. My wife Despite the levity, Affleck looks tired. of being harshly judged in the public eye. reason he took the gig. “Honestly, I thought, to the script supervisor after the first take: a very single-minded, original thinker. And he comes at (Jennifer Garner). Before that, Matt Damon and my Fried, really. He pushed back his own It’s on this, in his trailer during a break, ‘It’ll probably make me a lot better director, “There’s no need to pretend there’s anything everything — my business, scripts, everything — from brother (Casey). Aside from that, Kevin Smith, David picture, Prohibition-era crime saga Live that Affleck is the most enthused, words for next time.’ Don’t tell him I said that!” worth seeing in that, so go ahead and delete sort of left-of-field. Sometimes I think one can want to (Fincher), Marty Brest, Roger Michell. You know, a lot By Night, to work with Fincher. In the tumbling into each other as he reflects on He heads into the house on the stage, it. I mean, it’s encouraging, but fuck it.” be liked and he doesn’t give a damn about being liked of the directors that I worked with, that I had intense meantime, he’s decided — bollocks to it image and expectations and the media towards the re-built chair he demolished There is not a lot of hugging on a or not and that gives him tremendous freedom. I think personal fondness for, became kind of like temporary — he might as well be Batman. An Oscar- glare. “Life is a progression that is heavily before. Fincher shouts over, “Just shut up, Fincher set. As Pike explains, the director it’s the curse of actors to sort of feel that we need to be father figures. winning filmmaker with a huge Warner influenced by the expectations of others, sit down and act! Here we go!” spends a lot of time on casting, “not only likable. I think that we don’t, we just need to be true. Bros. franchise, a penchant for Dennis and we internalise notions of what parts A couple of hours later, Affleck comes to to see if you have the wherewithal to play Describe Rosamund in five words… Lehane adaptations and, today, bouffant we’re supposed to play,” he says. “In this the monitor with a question we don’t hear. the character, but to see if you’ve got the Describe Ben in five words... Driven, idiosyncratic, dedicated, surprising and tough… ? He’s turning into . movie the tabloid media plays that part to But Fincher answers: “I think the self- mettle to stand up to his process. You Funny (very funny), outspoken, unguarded, charismatic, She better fucking say nice things about me after that. The actor/writer/director isn’t blind the extreme because the media really wants flagellation starts in the medium shot and can’t really be a bundle of nerves on > handsome. How about that?

66 EMPIRE OCTOBER 2014 empireonline.com subscribe at www.empireonline.com/sub OCTOBER 2014 EMPIRE 67 a Fincher film. However much you might be able to put people into it that make you be feeling it inside. It’s not a gentle go, ‘I have to pay attention to see how this coaxing through an emotional range to works itself out.’ You know, I think that’s LOVE WILL reach a point… That’s not how he works. the shit that’s interesting to me.” You know that he’s 100 per cent on your That shit is still, primarily, tending side, but he’s not going to mollycoddle you towards the dark. Ten films in, he is still TEAR US in any way. He’s going to work and work drawn to stories with a riptide. Even his and work and give you all the time you most obviously warm and open-hearted need, very carefully going back to the movie, The Curious Case Of Benjamin APART beginning and redoing it. It’s a wonderful Button, is essentially about death. way to work. You’re just sort of carefully “I remember my dad once actually DATE MOVIES GUARANTEED layering or peeling back, I don’t know asked me, ‘Were you beaten up a lot as TO KILL ANY RELATIONSHIP which one. Probably peeling back. Probably a child? Were you in a lot of fights?’” he taking layers off, for the most part.” recalls. “If they see something you do that The way Fincher has it, “We’re gonna is disturbing, I guess parents have to ask. PRETTY POISON (1968) do this a bunch of times is the good news I think, actually, if I had been raised in This begins as a kooky, freewheeling romance as nervous and the bad news.” He reflects on how the horrific circumstances, it would probably fantasist Anthony Perkins chats up blonde cheerleader method affects his decisions: “If I had to change where I draw the line. But I grew Tuesday Weld, but then gets seriously disturbing as it turns do stuff in two or three takes, I don’t know up in a fairly idyllic situation, so that idea out the all-American high-school princess is actually more if I’d cast the same way. I’d probably try of thinking about really heinous behaviour, dangerous than the guy from Psycho.

• as (1977) friend/neighbour/ THE BRUTE ticking bomb Noelle. Not as well-known as it should be, this British film about an abusive husband (Julian Glover) and a put-upon wife (Sarah Douglas) is a tough watch but horribly convincing. It opens with Glover coming home late at night in a fit of jealousy and waking Douglas up by spitting on her face…

THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1989) The most relentless, merciless marriage break-up on film, Danny DeVito’s black comedy finds and going from rapturously in love to a bitter legal battle as their union dissolves into the kind of physical struggle that was labelled “mutually assured destruction” during the Cold War.

to cast with more of a guarantee in mind. it’s always been okay, because the world And I think that would probably be smart. around me has actually been pretty safe.” I don’t know that it would yield the product If Fincher only explored the macabre, that I have here.” It’s that casting outside though, it could prove pretty wearying. the box — as well as heads inside it — that The power of Gone Girl is that it works makes for unusual and rewarding choices. as metaphor — the genre is a Trojan horse Like the casting of Pike, or of actor/one- to expose something troubling in your man media industry (“I love everyday. This is a movie about murder that guy. He’s so interesting as a person”) and media, yes, but more about moribund as Dunne’s slick attorney, or Neil Patrick marriages and the lies we tell others and SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY (1991) Harris as one of Amy’s dubious admirers. ourselves. “It’s totally hyperbolised: it has Ladies, if you watch this -in-peril thriller Legend has Fincher as judgmental and nothing to do with you, except it’s exactly and your fella says he doesn’t see what Patrick Bergin certainly not one to suffer fools. “He’s not about you… and all the compromises that is doing wrong when he insists the “his” and “hers” right through arrogance, he’s right through you made,” says Fincher, in the darkness towels be perfectly aligned on the rod… Run a mile. having thought about every fucking angle of the set, before mimicking the potential out there,” says Pike. “Because he has done reaction of certain readers or audience his homework. And he is very impatient of members. “‘This is ridiculous!’ Yeah, it’s AUDITION (1999) people who have not done their homework.” ridiculous...” He pauses and his voice Takashi Miike’s most controlled film begins almost like a But, for all that, the director is open to the drops to a stage whisper, as they ready for rom-com as a widowed exec (Ryo Ishibashi) with film industry possibilities in people, and to actors going the next take: “Keep telling yourself that.” connections stages a bogus casting call in order to meet beyond what you, or they, would expect. [email protected] women. He clicks with a sensitive former dancer (Eihi Shiina) “I like the idea of telling stories that are and the film detours into horror as he is punished for his a little bit to the left of what people have GONE GIRL IS RELEASED ON OCTOBER 3 AND WILL BE smarmy wooing tactic. Features the nastiest acupuncture expectations for,” he says. “And then to REVIEWED IN A FUTURE ISSUE. ever attempted. KIM NEWMAN

68 EMPIRE OCTOBER 2014 empireonline.com