‘They are quintessentially themselves’: Rosamund Pike on the great Dames of acting

As an actress, you look to older actresses all the time as beacons of what the future might look like. The Dames are that for me: fantastic role models, embodying integrity, stamina and elegance, but not just for other actresses – for all women. They share an air of mystery. In an age when everybody’s giving everything of themselves constantly, and in a business of short attention spans and craving for newness, these women hold something back. There is enigma there, a necessary privacy. We can’t say we know them completely, which only adds to their allure. I hesitate to call them beautiful – it’s too obvious an idea. They are beautiful, but not just in looks: in soul and character; in their integrity, in the values they live by. They are quintessentially themselves.

I recall Helen Mirren in that shocking Michael Parkinson interview, where he introduced her as a sex symbol and she made her entrance, swishing a feather in a mocking send-up of the very idea. It was so daring, but she’s always been like that – she speaks and lives her truth. So does Kristin Scott Thomas, who is indelibly herself. I fell in love with her in Four Weddings and a Funeral. She was elegant, funny, moving and subtle. I had that feeling when you can’t imagine anyone else playing the role so well.

Emma Thompson is not only an absolute genius but incredibly kind. She found my number when my relationship broke up and called me out of the blue. It was a remarkable thing, an act of understanding, and that’s what she’s like: instinctive and generous. Sheila Hancock in Cabaret moved me deeply. Watching Harriet Walter move with such elegance on the set of Atonement struck me, too – in both performances, I felt their possession of some inner human knowledge that meant they played the characters impeccably, but also touched something universal.

The Dames all possess that same quality of truth, and they’re witty, all of them. None of these women have coasted, none of them have taken anything for granted, none of them have ever phoned it in. For them, it’s not about being a star or being famous. It’s a commitment to art as a way of life.

Image: Dame Kristin Scott Thomas in a scene with Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994. (Landmark Media)