Rosamund Pike was not impressed by a member of the audience at her West End show Inter Alia over the weekend.
After Saturday night’s performance of the hard-hitting legal drama — a role that recently won Pike an Olivier Award — the Saltburn and Pride and Prejudice star took to the stage for the final bows. She surprised attendees by making a short speech.
Pike reportedly said: “I just wanted to say for anyone going to the theater, it’s a huge thing that we’re trying to give you. I am trying to tell you a story, and I’m feeling you, and I hope you’re feeling me too. Somebody was texting in this part,” she continued, gesturing toward a particular section. “Maybe it was very important, and maybe you’re a doctor, and you’re saving someone’s life, and I hope you are.”
“But we do see these, we do feel them,” she added. “I’ve got you, I feel like I’ve got to hold you all, so when I feel that and see it, it’s hard.”
An audience member told The Times that Pike appeared “genuinely upset.” They added: “We all felt a bit stunned. It is a very emotional play. She indicated the area of the stalls where the person was sitting but said she would not single them out.”
Pike is currently starring in Suzie Miller’s Inter Alia, about a crown court judge fighting the legal system’s approach to sexual violence when she finds out her own son has been accused of rape, for a limited period after a successful run at the National Theatre last year.
She’s not the only star who has spoken out about theater etiquette. During Cynthia Erivo’s headline-grabbing stint in Dracula, she stopped a performance after spotting someone in the crowd filming. Andrew Scott did the same during a 2024 production of Hamlet, when an attendee had taken out their laptop to send emails during the character’s famous soliloquy.
Historically, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig and James McAvoy have also criticized audience members for disrupting their shows.
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