Rosamund Pike: I would love if Saltburn got Bafta love because it is so British

Saltburn star Rosamund Pike said she would love it if the film scored recognition at this year’s Bafta ceremony as “the film is so British, and sometimes the Brits are not good at celebrating their own”.

Pike was among the British and Irish stars attending the annual Bafta Tea Party in Los Angeles, alongside Oppenheimer’s Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy, Carey Mulligan from Maestro, Succession’s Brian Cox and Bella Ramsey from The Last Of Us.

The event, which took place at The Maybourne Beverly Hills, also welcomed a host of other Hollywood stars, including Barbie’s Greta Gerwig, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo from Poor Things, May December actress Julianne Moore, and The Holdovers actor Paul Giamatti.

During the event, Pike spoke about “smashing up” her face in a skiing accident just days before the Golden Globes.

“I’m fine, it was just a very foolish thing to do,” she told the PA news agency.

“I was talking to Pedro Pascal, who said he fell down the stairs and sprained his arm. Why is it that right before a really important event, we disadvantage ourselves? It is probably deep psychosis,” she joked.

Pike, who scored a nod in the Bafta longlist for best supporting actress following her role in Saltburn, spoke about the film being recognised in 11 categories, including best director for British star Emerald Fennell.

“It doesn’t always follow through, but I would love it if this film got love from Bafta because it is so British, the film is so British and sometimes the Brits are not good at celebrating their own, that’s also a British eccentricity in some way, so who knows, we’ll see,” Pike told PA.

The 44-year-old said Margot Robbie and her husband Tom Ackerley were “just the best producers to work for” because they created an “incredibly fun” work atmosphere.

“I’m sure there are loads of challenges behind the scenes that they never make us aware of (but) they keep the set really focused, positive, fun, and they really celebrate Emerald in all her brilliance and sort of make it happen,” she told PA.

The film features Irish star Barry Keoghan as Oliver Quick, who becomes obsessed with Jacob Elordi’s character Felix Catton.

“The script is seductive, Emerald is seductive, her characters are seductive, and she wrote it during covid when we were all obsessively looking at the outside world and wanting things we couldn’t have. We were all Oliver’s to some degree, maybe just not as extreme or maybe we are,” she added.

Meanwhile, Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor described being nominated for the Bafta Rising Star award alongside Elordi, Ayo Edebiri, Mia McKenna-Bruce and Sophie Wilde as “walking on cloud nine”.

“It feels so surreal, it’s such an honour,” the 28-year-old told PA.

“So many women as well (in the category), lots of women and Jacob Elordi, it’s great. I’m such a fan of everyone that I’m up against.

“It has been such a great year for film, it finally feels like we’re back, and awards season is back. I loved Anatomy Of A Fall and I loved Poor Things too, Emma Stone’s performance, it deserves all the recognition.”

Dynevor said filming the first series of Bridgerton, which aired on Christmas Day in 2020, was “the best time of my life in some ways” and seeing the careers of her cast mates take off including Jonathan Bailey – who was also at the event – “makes me so proud”.

A staple fixture in the awards season calendar, the Bafta Tea Party in Los Angeles welcomes contenders, members, and guests in the run-up to the Bafta film awards at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on February 18.

Among those on the longlist is Past Lives director Celine Song, who was also up for best director at the Golden Globes alongside Martin Scorsese for Killers Of The Flower Moon and Oppenheimer’s Christopher Nolan – who won the award.

She told the PA news agency: “It’s unbelievable and amazing, of course, I spent my whole life watching these legendary, amazing filmmakers, and for me to be talked about with them is such a completely unreal thing, it’s awesome, it’s incredible, it’s cool.

“Just the idea that I’m in the same room as Martin Scorsese feels so wild to me…I used to watch his films on a VHS in Korea, and now I’m in the same room as him.”

The film stars Bafta-longlisted actors Greta Lee and Teo Yoo as two deeply connected childhood friends who are pulled apart after her family emigrates from South Korea before the pair reunite two decades later for just one week.

“I think the thing that I wanted more than anything was for it to feel true to me, or feel authentic or real to me personally as a movie,” Song told PA.

“To me, it is less about expectation and a little bit more like a question – will this movie connect with the audience? Of course, the response is yes, that only emboldens me that the stories I want to tell…the audience wants to come and see the stories I tell.”

Song said the benefit of the film being her directorial debut is “when they show up for my project, it is not because of some expectation they have, it’s because they connected with the story my script tells”.

She also said the cast and crew were “a little tribe”, describing it as “one of the most collaborative and fulfilling experiences”.