Rosamund Pike defends her Now You See Me villain against 'psychopath' label – and talks ditching her English accent for role

Rosamund Pike is no stranger to playing characters who could be described as anti-heroes, from Amy Dunne in Gone Girl to Marla Grayson in I Care A Lot. And now, she's taking on a proper out-and-out villain in the new Now You See Me film.

The threequel reunites the 'Four Horsemen' of the original film – played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco – as they join forces with a younger trio of magicians to stave off their greatest threat yet.

That threat comes in the form of Pike's South African diamond company CEO Veronika Vanderberg – a great villainous name, as Pike points out – who is in league with an assortment of dodgy criminal networks, laundering money and taking part in all sorts of other shady dealings.

Veronika is clearly no good egg, and at one point in the film is even labelled a psychopath by Harrelson's character Merritt McKinney – but Pike reckons that this characterisation may be taking things a stretch too far.

"I thought that was a bit much," she laughed during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "I was fine with all the insults – but psychopath I balked at!"

So what does Pike really think of the character? "Well, she was injured and hurt as a young lady," she said. "No, I mean it's probably daddy issues like Woody says, really, isn't it? It's competing for an absent father's attention and wanting to prove that she's good enough, I guess."

She continued: "And now she's inherited this diamond mine and she's doing dealings with world leaders who are powerful and nefarious like she is and she's facilitating wars and smuggling diamonds across borders….

"I think people definitely know that she's into bad stuff, bad stuff. And it's the thing of having to make her formidable and threatening enough, but also within this type of movie to also make her fun enough to watch."

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One aspect of playing Veronika that probably adds to the fun – and certainly helps dial up the camp factor – is that Pike was forced to ditch her usual English accent and adopt a South African one, something she thought was crucial when it came to getting into character.

"I think she is the accent," she explained. "Some of these lines, you think, 'Thank God,' because if I'd done them in an English accent it would have been much harder to get that sense that I was looking for – of someone who's very pleased with herself, with an inflated sort of self importance and vanity through the roof."

That vanity is certainly evident in the character, throughout the film and presents itself in a multitude of different ways. One example which Pike found especially amusing was the fact that Veronika poses for photos with the motorsports team she owns while wearing a boiler suit – as if she herself was a member of the team.

"She's never sat in a car in her life, and yet she's there in the race team colours," she smiled. "I just thought that is exactly what she would do – she'd stand with the star driver just a little bit behind her."

Clearly, it all added up to a thoroughly enjoyable experience for the Saltburn star. "Oh, I love... characters who are vain really please me to play!" she said.

Now You See Me: Now You Don't is released in UK cinemas on Friday 14th November.

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