BETWEEN TAKES

ROSAMUND PIKE THE WHEEL OF TIME STAR ON PARTYING, ROGUE LENSES AND DOING WIRE WORK WITH A FULL STOMACH…

What is the first thing you do when you arrive on a film set?

If it’s everybody’s first day, everybody is nervous. Nothing goes right. You don’t have running water [laughs] – you can’t make a cup of tea. My only requirement is that I can make a cup of tea.

Is it less nerve-racking when you’re returning to something, as with Season 2 of The Wheel of Time?

Yeah. I had a funny thing: in my trailer, in my bathroom, on the cupboard door underneath the sink, there was one of my contact lenses that had stuck to it during Season 1. Every time I saw it, I thought, ‘Well, I’m not going to remove it, because I’m going to see if there’s any level of cleaning going on here.’ And also, it amused me to think that even if there was, maybe, intensive COVID-friendly cleaning, this contact lens was somehow withstanding it. At the beginning of Season 2, the contact lens was gone. But it had taken the best part of two years to go away.

Do you have any on-set superstitions?

I turn around three times before I walk into a… No, I don’t do that [laughs]. I spit before crossing the threshold. Hmmm. On-set superstitions? No.

Hot or cold lunch?

I’d probably be safer with a cold lunch, because a hot lunch that’s cooled is not so satisfactory. It’s not great to have a big lunch if you’re doing any wire work. You have one of these constricting belts, and it doesn’t feel good when the lunch is squeezed in odd directions.

Do you sleep on set?

Whenever I can. Simon Pegg taught me. Simon had a chair called Jeff, which was given to him by Jeff Bridges, and Jeff would accompany us everywhere. I’ve seen Simon have a nap in Jeff on the corner of Tottenham Court Road. And now, this season, I’m proud that I’ve located a similar Jeff in Prague. I bought one for [Wheel of Time co-star] Daniel Henney and myself, as we are the most veteran members of the cast. So we sit in our chairs by our tents, looking like a couple from Florida in retirement.

‘MY ONLY REQUIREMENT ON SET IS THAT I CAN MAKE A CUP OF TEA’

Is it a different flavour being on set of a fantasy like The Wheel of Time to, say, a social-realist drama?

It’s totally different, because you don’t get a minute to yourself. Your character is in the desert, dusty, dirty and bruised. Every second that the camera’s not turning, somebody is doing something to you, whether it’s checking your wig lace, taking debris out of your hair, reapplying dry lip make-up, steaming your dress. You think about all the time that you have to yourself when you’re doing something modern and you’re wearing jeans. That’s the difference.

Have you ever stolen anything from set?

I tried. [My character] Moiraine gets this poem written in the old tongue in episode 1 [of S2 of The Wheel of Time]. I thought, ‘I’m going to have that.’ And then, a few days later, they’re like, ‘We’ve got this big problem. There’s a prop show-and-tell. Amazon producers are coming over. The poem is missing.’ They were like, ‘Did you, by any chance, take the poem home with you? Could you check?’ I was like, ‘Well, I mean, you know, I’ll go through my things…’ Anyway, the poem materialised.

What’s the best-ever wrap party you’ve ever been to?

Daniel and I decided to throw a party for the crew in Marrakech – Igot to announce it on the aeroplane, over the intercom. I was like, ‘This is Moiraine speaking. Together with al’Lan, we’d like to invite you to a party on a roof.’ It was messy and fun. There was a gatecrasher, and one of our producers had to extract him by grabbing him by the shirt and the balls simultaneously. I thought, ‘Not only is that a really impressive move, but he’s definitely done it before!’

THE WHEEL OF TIME: SEASON 2 IS ON PRIME VIDEO FROM 1 SEPTEMBER.