Saltburn star Rosamund Pike reveals who she based her Bafta-nominated role on and how reading Vogue magazines helped her

ITS shock bath tub scene and viral naked dance divided viewers and ­critics – and saw Saltburn snubbed by the Oscars.

But the psychological thriller could redeem itself at the Bafta awards tomorrow, where it is up for five gongs — with ­Rosamund Pike the most hotly tipped to win.

The scene-stealing Brit is in the running for Best Supporting Actress, alongside co-stars Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, who are nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

Rosamund has been lauded for her deadpan delivery and off-the-cuff improvisation, with her performance hailed as “brilliantly cracked”, “dazzling” and “gloriously rude”.

Her character — Lady Elspeth ­Catton, the shallow, upper-class mum of charismatic Felix — brushes off rumours that she was the posh student who inspired the Pulp song Common People, which talks about a “thirst for knowledge” in its lyrics.

The grounds for her denial are that she “never wanted to know anything”.

And now, mum-of-two Rosamund, 45, reveals that in order to get into the mind of the repressed Elspeth, she played the character as “a ­sexual anorexic”.

She says: “The food anorexic might say, ‘Food is my greatest need and also my greatest fear’. A sexual anorexic would say, ‘Sex is my greatest need and also my greatest fear’.

‘Never seen Bond’

“And that gave me a very interesting way to play Elspeth. Because it’s your greatest need — you want to be desired, you want people to look at you sexually — but it’s also something you loathe.”

Educated at a private school in Bristol and having studied English literature at Oxford, Rosamund will know something about the type of characters in the movie.

The fun thing was improvising as Elspeth because I basically had to take any story that was of the time and sort of insert myself into it

Written and directed by Emerald Fennell — who played the younger Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown — it is about state school student Oliver Quick, who becomes pals with posh Felix while studying at snobby Oxford.

Oliver, played by Irish rising star Keoghan, 31, is invited by Felix, portrayed by Elordi, 26, to stay at the Cattons’ sprawling country house, Saltburn, for the summer.

While there, he develops a deeply unhealthy obsession with the family.

Emerald encouraged her cast to go off script and Rosamund happily took up the opportunity to let her imagination run wild.

The film is set around 2006, so the actress read a load of Vogue magazines from that year for inspiration.

She explains: “The fun thing was improvising as Elspeth because I basically had to take any story that was of the time and sort of insert myself into it.

“It was the time that Keith ­Richards was reported to have snorted his father’s ashes.

“And I thought that was a kind of marvellous story for Elspeth to have got on and she could have said, ‘Oh, gosh, you know, when I was in Mustique and Keith came to me and offered me a line of his father’s ashes . . .’ ”

I’ve missed every important event of my life, including the call to say I got the Bond film

As it turned out, the Richards story is another urban myth about the Rolling Stones guitarist.

Rosamund does not think ­Saltburn would have been financed if the film’s backers had known from the start how outrageous it would be.

 She reveals: “The script I read is still not quite the film that’s on screen, because Emerald is someone who keeps writing.

“She keeps pushing those things a bit further. And I think there are definitely scenes in the film which probably could never have been in the script or she would never have got it made.”

 It was Margot Robbie, the star of Barbie — which also got five Bafta nominations — who decided to take a chance by producing the British flick. And it has certainly paid off.

While it only made some £13million at the box office in November during its limited release, the big money has been earned on the Amazon streaming site, where it topped the movie charts over the festive period.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has also been rewarded for allowing her 2001 hit Murder On The Dancefloor to be played as Barry’s character strips off to dance around Saltburn at the end of the film.

The track went straight back into the Top Ten and Sophie has seen a renaissance in her career both here and abroad — even landing an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy ­Fallon in the US this week.

Rosamund, like Sophie, is someone who has taken her chances when they have come along.

She got her big break almost by chance, having just returned from backpacking after finishing university when an audition for 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day, with Pierce Brosnan, came along.

The actress claims she was totally unprepared for the role, having never seen a 007 movie.

 Rosamund reveals: “I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d never seen a Bond film, which is unusual, I realise. And I went into this still in my kind of shaggy-haired look from travelling, a long skirt and cardigan, and there were all these women in what would be far more appropriate get-up for a Bond Girl.

“I thought, ‘Oh dear, I’ve got this very wrong’.”

Despite that inauspicious start, producers saw something special in the unknown newcomer and cast her as MI6 agent Miranda Frost.

But the actress says she missed the call telling her she had the job because of a row with a boyfriend.

She says: “I’ve missed every important event of my life, including the call to say I got the Bond film.

“I’d had a break-up with a boyfriend and stormed off to somewhere where I could be out of reach and I missed the call. No one could get hold of me.”

Her impressive turn as a Bond beauty was the springboard for a cinematic career that includes Gone Girl, Pride And Prejudice, Made In Dagenham and Jack Reacher.

‘Mentally go home’

Yet Rosamund also missed the call telling her of her Gone Girl Oscar nod in 2015 — because she was fast asleep with her second son Atom, now nine.

She says: “I was in bed with a baby. I was asleep when I got the Oscar nomination.”

 Rosamund also has son Solo, 11, with her partner Robie Uniacke, 62, who she met in 2009.

 Her path to a settled home life has not been easy. The leggy blonde’s first major relationship, with actor Simon Woods, ended after two years when he came out as gay.

Then her plan to tie the knot with Atonement director Joe Wright reportedly blew up following a ­disagreement about “pre-wedding postcards” in 2008.

You’ve got to keep remembering who you are and where home is

Eton-educated businessman Robie has an even more tangled past, having been hitched twice.

The former heroin addict’s first wife was actress Emma Howard. He later had a failed marriage to ­interior designer Rose Batstone.

Londoner Rosamund and Robie left England to live in Czech capital Prague in 2019.

 The actress, who often gets immersed in her roles, says the best advice she ever received was from Dame Judi Dench, who told her it is important to “mentally go home” when the cameras stop ­rolling.

She explains: “Even if you’re going to go out and have a party or whatever, you’ve just got to ­mentally go home because otherwise the adrenaline and all that can take you into the wrong place.

“You’ve got to keep remembering who you are and where home is.”

No one would want to go home as the emotionally distant Lady Catton from Saltburn.

 Fortunately, Rosamund produced an award-worthy performance without getting psychologically involved in the often heartless character.

She concludes: “I just saw Elspeth Catton as a fun ride.”