Saltburn star was ‘very uncomfortable’ with final cut of film

Rosamund Pike has revealed her initial reaction to watching Saltburn (Picture: Prime)

Rosamund Pike felt ‘very uncomfortable’ when she first watched her new film Saltburn.

Emerald Fennell’s provocative thriller, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, has been providing similar feelings to other people this Christmas too, following attempted festive family viewings despite warnings of its explicit content.

The British actress, 44, plays Elspeth Catton, who welcomes her son Felix’s (Jacob Elordi) friend Oliver (Barry Keoghan) into the family mansion for the summer, with devasting consequences.

Even though she knew the film’s gaze would be ‘so erotic and so intimate and uncomfortable’ (ahem, *that* bathtub scene, among others), Pike was still shocked by the final cut, which features sexual scenes and full-frontal nudity.

‘I remember being very uncomfortable when I first saw the film. I couldn’t really watch myself at all.

‘I hated how I found it uncomfortable the way Elspeth was… I don’t know quite what it was, I was made to feel quite uncomfortable. I think the camera is so personal, the lens is so close and you really see everything. And our editor was very, very fine and detailed,’ she told Deadline.

The actress plays Saltburn matriarch Elspeth Catton, and found it ‘uncomfortable’ to watch herself on screen in character (Picture: Prime)

The Bond star said that she was ‘shocked’ during her first viewing too, adding: ‘I regret never having the experience that others will have, being taken on the ride.

However, she hopes that ‘maybe, sometimes that can come in a few years’ time’.

When asked what her experience was of reading Fennell’s script, Pike insisted the screenplay ‘fooled many people’ and revealed that the writer-director added in some scenes or lines later.

Giving an example, the Gone Girl star explained: ‘Where Archie (Madekwe’s Farleigh) says, “This for me is life, and for you, you’re going to look back and this was just a h**d j*b in a golden haystack big boy summer.” I was like, who writes that? How does that even come out of you?’

Barry Keoghan’s Oliver forms a rivalry with Archie Madekwe’s Farleigh, after he makes friends with his cousin Felix (Jacob Elordi) (Picture: Prime)

Saltburn features full-frontal nudity and explicit scenes that have raised eyebrows (Picture: Prime)

She added: ‘If someone just dropped that in my lap saying, “These are your lines for tomorrow,” I would rejoice.

‘Everything that comes out of her mouth, or out of her pen, it’s just specifically delicious.’

Ahead of the film’s release, Fennell warned that she and the cast did ‘go to places that are quite extreme’ as she discussed the film’s most shocking scenes, which were written with the intention to be ‘very sexy’.

Pike praised writer-director Emerald Fennell’s work as ‘specifically delicious’ (Picture: Getty)

‘We were all very, very dedicated to make something incredibly personal and unique and honest feeling, and in many ways, a lot of Saltburn is a little exposing or complicated,’ she told Metro.co.uk.

‘And I say that as the person who thought it in the first place! So if anyone should be asking any sort of questions about sanity, for example, they should leave them maybe at my door….’

Richard E. Grant, Carey Mulligan, Alison Oliver and Paul Rhys also number among Saltburn’s cast.

Saltburn is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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‘The camera is so personal, the lens is so close and you really see everything.’