Love in the lab
ROSAMUND PIKE plays groundbreaking scientist Marie Curie in a revealing new biopic about her life and work
THE LIFE AND work of one of the most remarkable scientists in history is explored this week when Rosamund Pike portrays Marie Curie in Amazon Prime Video’s film Radioactive.
It follows the Polish-french chemist and physicist from the 1870s onwards and chronicles her scientific breakthroughs, personal relationships and her struggle to make her voice heard in a man’s world.
Marie and her husband Pierre (Sam Riley) changed the face of the 20th century, and she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for the discovery of radioactivity – only for Marie to eventually die from her exposure to radiation during her many years of research.
It was a fate that also befell her daughter Irène (Anya Taylor-joy), who also won a Nobel Prize for research into radioactivity, while the film co-stars Aneurin Barnard as Paul Langevin, who becomes Marie’s lover after the tragic death of her husband.
Here, Pike, 41, reveals more about the film…
WHAT INTERESTED YOU ABOUT PLAYING MARIE CURIE?
She had all the qualities that I admire – resilience, courage, bravery, and she was eccentric, too. She put hours and hours of labour into her discoveries – hard, manual work and obviously the brainwork, too. She changed the face of the 20th century.
DID YOU KNOW MUCH ABOUT HER BEFORE?
I didn’t learn about her in school, so it blew my mind when I realised the term ‘radioactivity’ was coined by Marie, that she was the person who revealed that phenomenon to the world. I think this film will make people say, ‘Wow, I had no idea what she did!’
WHAT RESEARCH DID YOU DO?
I got a chemistry teacher and had a sort of night school at home after my kids went to bed. I thought, ‘If I’m going to play her, I need to know what she knew.’ For those months, I thought more about Marie Curie and her hopes and fears and wants and desires than I did about my own life.
THE DRAMA ALSO FOCUSES ON HER MARRIAGE. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?
Marie was odd. She was very direct and had no filter. But her husband Pierre found that charming and endearing – he understood her. Their marriage was something very precious. They had shared interests that led them to change the world together.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR ROMANCE?
Pierre tragically died when he slipped and fell under a horse-drawn cart, then some years later Marie had an affair with one of his students, Paul. This caused an unbelievable scandal in French society and she was hounded by the press. She had a very colourful life, but she withstood these storms with incredible dignity.