Rosamund Pike felt “very uncomfortable” when she first watched Saltburn.

In Emerald Fennell’s provocative thriller, the British actress plays Elspeth Catton, who welcomes her son’s friend Oliver 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”, 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,” she told Deadline. “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.

“So yeah, I was shocked and very uncomfortable, the first time I saw it, for sure. And I regret never having the experience that others will have, being taken on the ride. But maybe, sometimes that can come in a few years’ time.”

When asked if she was taken on the ride while reading Fennell’s script, Pike insisted the screenplay “fooled many people” and explained that the writer-director added in some scenes or lines later.

Giving an example, the Gone Girl star said, “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?

“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.”

Saltburn is now streaming on Prime Video.

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