The Oscar-nominated “Gone Girl” actress fretted that a certain sci-fi actioner “could have ended my career.”

Rosamund Pike feels ‘lucky to have survived’ this early career bomb: ‘One of the worst films ever made’

The Oscar-nominated "Gone Girl" actress fretted that a certain sci-fi actioner "could have ended my career."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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March 11, 2026 7:35 p.m. ET

Rosamund Pike in 'Doom' (2005). Credit:

All great actors star in their fair share of bombs, but few beyond Rosamund Pike hold the distinction of starring in "one of the worst films ever made."

The *Gone Girl *star detailed her self-described "failure to become an action star," in a conversation on Tuesday's episode of *How to Fail With Elizabeth Day*. Despite "a promising start" in the coveted "Bond girl" role in 2002's *Die Another Day*, Pike's 2005 follow-up proved a bomb so "catastrophic" she feared for her future career.

Rosamund Pike, Karl Urban, and Dwayne Johnson in 'Doom'.

Keith Hamshere/Universal

"When I was making *Pride and Prejudice*, and I was having great fun in my cornfields in my bonnet, I get a call to be in an action franchise," Pike recalled. "They're making a cinema version, a narrative version of the video game *Doom*. And I think in my bonnet, in my field of hay bales, 'Yeah, I can do anything. I can jump on this hay bale in my crinoline, so I can certainly go and kill some zombies on Mars.'"

Id Software's popular *Doom *games follow an interstellar marine's life-or-death battle against space demons to save Earth from invasion. Pike explained that the film originally starred Ray Winstone, but he was replaced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, just a few years out from his first first film role — as the Scorpion King in 2001's *The Mummy Returns* — after years in the ring as a professional wrestler.

"So suddenly I'm in this film with the Rock, and I realize how utterly ill-equipped I am to be an action star," she said, recalling the "macho guys" who dominated the production. "There were weights on the set.... Every time a gun was brought out, it was kind of like a holy relic for the *Doom* fans… I was just out of my comfort zone, out of my league, out of my depth."

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Pike pulled no punches when describing the finished product: "It was an absolute bomb. I mean, I probably could have ended my career. It was just probably one of the worst films ever made. I mean, it was a catastrophe," she said. "You get the sense like you're lucky to have survived that one."

Indeed, *Doom* was panned by critics and underperformed at the box office. Directed by frequent Sidney Lumet collaborator Andrzej Bartkowiak, the film grossed $58 million worldwide, on an estimated budget of about $60 million (not counting marketing and publicity costs). And it certainly hasn't had the staying power of *Pride and Prejudice*.

Rosamund Pike in Beverly Hills in 2024.

Amy Sussman/Getty

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Pike was all smiles during a 2005 interview with IGN to promote the film, joking that after *Pride and Prejudice*, "I thought Mr. Darcy, the lead character of that, was supposed to be the epitome of the ultimate man. And then you meet the Rock and you think, *Ah, English guys have a little bit to learn.*"

Over two decades later, she's grateful for her *Doom *experience, telling Day, "It was probably after that that I started to do my research, because I didn't know enough about video games... I just wasn't that person."

You can watch Pike's full appearance on the *How to Fail *podcast above.

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