http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4910595668001

LOS ANGELES – Rosamund Pike has had other things on her mind lately than the Oscar nominations. She's been on the circuit attending the Palm Springs Film Festival Awards Gala and the Golden Globes, but there's been this new addition who has sort of preoccupied her free time.  The “Gone Girl” star says she was “stunned” and that her lead actress Oscar nomination is “amazing,” but that she was also completely unprepared for it all.

“I know it sounds like I should have been but I'm so just living in the day,” Pike says. “I was asleep and my manager woke me up and then my agent in the UK called. You know, we've all been on quite a big journey and it's totally stunning. I'm stunned. And obviously, I have a six-week baby so it was the first time someone was waking me up not wanting food.”

While many of her fellow nominees have spent the last few months attending screenings and events on the circuit, Pike delivered a baby and was away from most of the fun. Being in the states for the past few weeks has given her new insight into how much David Fincher's thriller has resonated with people and “gotten inside” their heads.

“I think the nomination is a testament to what David and Gillian [Flynn] created,” Pike says, “because I've been away in England doing no press, basically having my baby, and I think the fact I received this nomination today just shows that somehow that film and that character got inside people's heads in quite an indelible way. It's very exciting. So, now I've been in LA and I've been out and about and you're not the first person who has come up to me and said, 'I've seen this film five times' or two times or three times. That is the best reward I can tell you.”

Pike's performance as “Amazing” Amy Dunne has earned raves since the film debuted at the New York Film Festival and the 35-year-old Brit recognized immediately that the character provided her a rare opportunity.

“I knew that this was a character that I kind of had in me somewhere deep, somewhere that would be scary to explore, but somewhere I would feel that I would never look back if you got the chance to explore it,” she says. “You have to be quite fearless.

“Someone was asking me what I felt after the experience in going forward. Obviously, I haven't done a film since then, but I feel when I do my next film I'm going to be much more, I don't know, fearless and sort of up for anything. I think that's what this whole experience gave me as a life lesson. And David Fincher demands that. You've got to be someone who is up for it, because there was the insanity of this part – I mean, she was absolutely grounded in reality – but there were moments of sheer insanity that border on theatrical. There is an actress in that woman. The sociopath has an actor in them, an actor who can kind of see emotion and play.”

There are many questions as to why 20th Century Fox didn't mount a bigger awards campaign for “Gone Girl” (although word has it Fincher is the main reason why there wasn't one), but Pike is happy to carry the torch for the $365 million global blockbuster to the Dolby Theater. She admits, however, that she wishes she weren't the only member of the “Gone Girl” family being recognized.

“I would have loved to see Carrie Coon or Kim Dickens nominated for supporting actress,” she says. “I really would. They are two very impressive ladies and these days when I watch the film I watch it for one or the other of their performances.”

The 87th Academy Awards will be broadcast live on Feb. 22 on ABC.