The super healthy snack Rosamund Pike eats 'straight from the jar’

It’s hard not to like Rosamund Pike. Her poise, intellect (she has an English Literature degree from the University of Oxford) and acting range give you the sense that – whether she’s playing Gone Girl’s chillingly calculated Amy Dunne or Saltburn’s fabulously chaotic Elspeth Catton – she knows exactly what she’s doing.

But in a recent Dish podcast with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, Pike comes across far more down-to-earth than many of her on-screen characters. Funny, warm and refreshingly honest, the Olivier Award-winning actor opens up about everything from ‘midnight feasts’ to eating peanut butter straight from the jar.

‘My guilty pleasure, I’m afraid, is a spoonful of peanut butter straight out of the jar,’ she admits.

Rosamund Pike says eating for energy is essential during theatre runs

Pike, who is currently starring in legal drama Inter Alia at the National Theatre, says her approach to food is largely about maintaining stable energy levels during long performance days.

‘You know, energy is so much about eating,’ she says. ‘I think one of the hardest things of being an actor on film is how to [eat] so that you don’t have a slump. You can’t not eat because you’ll have a sugar crash. You eat too much; you’ll be in a food coma.’

The actor says she tends to eat dinner around 5pm during theatre runs, but admits her eating habits can become slightly chaotic afterwards.

‘I don’t really do lunch,’ she says. ‘I sort of do midnight feasts.’

Pike jokes that her ideal low-effort meal is more about ‘foraging’ in the fridge than cooking proper meals.

‘Don’t you ever wish you could have a friend over and just say, instead of cooking for them, do you want to do what I do? Should we just have a spoonful of yoghurt and a little bit of almond butter on half a rice cake and what about some jam? I mean, let’s just go for the jam.’

She says dark chocolate works ‘like espresso’

Pike is also a devoted dark chocolate fan and says she often relies on it as a quick energy boost.

‘It’s like a little pick-me-up,’ she says. ‘Obviously, I know that chocolate is so satisfying because it melts at body temperature, so that’s why we love it. You put it in your mouth and it immediately starts to change texture.’

Her love of chocolate has occasionally caused issues on set.

‘There are a couple of close-ups in some films that I won’t name where there is a tiny bit of chocolate in the corner of my mouth, missed by a makeup artist,’ she laughs. ‘I used to be called “chocolate chops” by one person in the film. I won’t tell you which one.’

Despite loving dark chocolate, Pike says fruit-flavoured chocolate is where she draws the line.

‘I hate it,’ she says.

Chocolate orange?

‘Oh no.’

Her backstage dinners are surprisingly simple

Pike’s backstage dinners are fairly low-key.

‘Post-show I’ll have a chamomile tea with honey,’ she says. ‘And I’ll be very rigorous about that.’

But things become a little more lively thanks to her onstage husband, Jamie Glover, who she says makes exceptional cocktails backstage.

‘To any actress working in a play, I advise you to find an onstage husband who loves to drink and makes really exceptional cocktails,’ she jokes. ‘Last week it was something called a Poet’s Dream.’

Food-wise, Pike says her dinners are often simple ‘cold’ meals. One evening, she says, she ate sardines backstage – something Glover apparently found hilarious.

‘What’s for your depressing dinner tonight?’ he joked.

Pike defended the meal, explaining the sardines came from a ‘posh Italian deli’ and were served with grains and vegetables. She also keeps good olive oil and salt in her dressing room to elevate simpler dishes.

Still, Glover apparently continues to ask whether it’s ‘pilchards’ on the menu.

Rosamund Pike’s favourite foods

Pike also revealed she’s more confident in the kitchen than some people expect.

‘People are always surprised that you can cook,’ she said, recalling one friend suggesting she launch a YouTube series called Rosamund Cooks after making mince pies from scratch.

‘I was rustling up a bit of pastry for some mince pies and she was gobsmacked,’ Pike laughed. ‘There were actually basic skills that were known.’

When cooking for friends, Pike says she gravitates towards relaxed, generous dishes.

‘Easter’s one of my favourite times. I love to make a big side of salmon and a shakshuka,’ she says. ‘I love making big salads with lentils and beetroot, feta – just simple things.’