Rosamund Pike: women should be more ambitious
She has acquired a reputation as a demure English rose, but actress Rosamund Pike has called on women to toughen up and flaunt their ambition.
“As a woman, you feel that you shouldn’t want to better yourself against others. Ambition has become such an ugly word, hasn’t it?” she said.
“But when you look up the definition, ambition is to achieve distinction in your chosen field and most of us would own up to that, wouldn’t we?
“So I’ve just decided to be a little bit less frightened and a bit less, ‘Please like me and please give me a job’, and a bit more, ‘This is my opinion and this is what I want to do.’”
The 32-year-old actress landed her breakthrough role as a Bond girl in the 2002 film Die Another Day. She went on to win plaudits for her performances in Pride and Prejudice and An Education.
In 2007, Pike became engaged to Joe Wright, who directed her in Pride and Prejudice. But Wright jilted her a month before their 2008 wedding, a humiliation for the actress who had already sent out save-the-date cards.
They have not crossed paths since but Pike told InStyle magazine that she has moved on.
“When you’re about to get married and then you’re not, it’s all a big shock. You think, well, okay, so I’m never going to lead a totally conventional life now,” said Pike.
“And in that, I find a tremendous freedom. I now know I can be married or not married, live with someone or apart, or even in a separate country.
“Even my grandmother is no longer expecting me to go down a conventional route, which is nice. Let’s just say I’m really enjoying not being married at the moment.”
In the interview, Pike also confessed to a loathing for awards ceremonies.
“These are all the things I probably shouldn’t say, but I find them the low point of the cinematic calendar, because you’re celebrating all these fantastic performances and you have people delivering trite lines in a sort of terribly pretentious manner on stage,” she said.
Pike’s latest film is Johnny English Reborn, the spy spoof starring Rowan Atkinson.
:: The full interview is in the November issue of InStyle, on sale now
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8808974/Rosamund-Pike-women-should-be-more-ambitious.html
