Rosamund Pike appeared on a recent episode of the podcast How to Fail at Elizabeth Day and opened up about the “disaster” of appearing in the 2005 video game version of Doom. A sci-fi action film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, starring Dwayne Johnson and Karl Urban. Pike was still an up-and-comer, having recently broken out as the villain in the James Bond film Die Another Day.
“I was making Pride and Prejudice and having a lot of fun in the cornfield in the bonnet when I got the call to be in an action series,” Pike said (via The Independent). “They were making a movie version, a story version, of the video game Doom. And I’m in the hood, in a field of hay bales, thinking, ‘Yeah, I can do anything.’ I can wear a crinoline and jump on this hay bale so I can go to Mars and kill zombies. ”
“So all of a sudden I ended up being in this movie with The Rock and realizing how completely unprepared I was to be an action star,” she continued. “[There were]macho guys. There was also a weight to the set. Every time a gun was brought out, it was kind of a relic for ‘Doom’ fans. I was just outside my comfort zone, outside my level, out of my depth.”
“Doom” centers on a group of Marines fighting demonic creatures on Mars. Johnson’s acting career was also on the rise after appearing in The Scorpion King and Walking Tall, but it did not match the box office success it currently has. Johnson replaced Ray Winstone in the film. “Doom” was a flop, making just under $60 million worldwide. The reviews were even worse. The film has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 18%, but Variety wrote in its review that the film is “actually not that bad.”
“That was an absolute bomb. I mean, it probably could have ended my career,” Pike said. “It was probably one of the worst movies ever made. I mean, it was a disaster. I haven’t read the reviews, but I feel like I was lucky to survive that movie.”
Listen to Pike’s full interview on the podcast “How to Fail with Elizabeth Day” here.
