Rosamund Pike greatly inspired by A United Kingdom

Rosamund Pike had a great emotional connection to the woman she plays in A United Kingdom.

The upcoming drama directed by Amma Asante tells the story of the true-life romance between English woman Ruth Williams and Sir Seretse Khama of Botswana, who caused an international stir when they married in London in the late 1940s. David Oyelowo takes on the role of Seretse while Rosamund portrays Ruth, and shares that she was very much inspired by the script.

“I loved the story so much. I find it inspiring to be those people,” she told Total Film magazine. “There’s that wonderful appetite to seize life that people had right after the war, especially women. Ruth had driven an ambulance (during World War II) I think it gave her this eye that you could do bigger things with your life. And the way she went into that love affair so openly, without any anxiety or negativity – love that.”

Rosamund also revealed that her connection to Ruth was deeper still, as one of her grandmothers was born in Blackheath, where Ruth had come from. In addition, the scenes in Botswana were actually shot in Seretse and Ruth’s original home.

“It was a gift, because the story is in the soil there,” she smiled.

Meanwhile, Amma said it was an honour to portray the story of such a ground-breaking couple, who faced opposition from the apartheid government of South Africa and tribal elders in Botswana who didn’t approve of their interracial union.

“It’s not very often you come across a real story that has the intimate microcosm, and the elements of social justice and equality in politics, at the same time,” she said.