Rosamund Pike warns people are ‘being conned by the wellness industry’

The actor reflects on how people should ‘interrogate’ the idea of wellness

Rosamund Pike has said that the wellness industry is a “con” that is “so seductive” because it claims to fulfil people’s desires such as youth, beauty and fitness.

The Gone Girl star, 44, was asked about “satirical mentions” of Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness platform Goop in her new project, a BBC audio drama titled People Who Knew Me.

She said: “I think we’re all being conned by the wellness industry. This idea that it’s no longer enough to be healthy and we have to be ‘well’ is something that needs to be interrogated.

“Yet it’s so seductive because it’s in pursuit of things that people are ashamed to want, like youth, beauty and fitness.”

Pike reflected on how the MeToo movement “gave women an opportunity to escape some of the demands put on them”, but nearly six years since the movement began, people are now “voluntarily flocking back to being controlled but in a different guise”.

“It’s politicised our food, politicised our exercise, and I think it’s really dangerous,” she told the Guardian in an interview published today (Sunday 11 June).

Pike’s forthcoming audio drama, which also features Hugh Laurie, follows her character Emily Morris, who uses the 9/11 tragedy to fake her own death and run away to California to assume a new identity as Connie Prynne.

According to the BBC, Pike’s character is diagnosed with breast cancer 14 years later and must decide how to explain her secrets to her 13-year-old daughter Claire.

In 2021, Pike launched a meditation app called Lumenate, which she claimed could help guide users “into an altered state of consciousness”.

Books Rosamund Pike (2018 Invision)

As the creative director of the app, she explained on Instagram: “Based on two years of research into the effects of stroboscopic light on brain function, the mobile app uses stroboscopic light sequences from your phone’s flashlight to neurologically guide you into an altered state of consciousness.

“All you need in 10 minutes to yourself in a darkened room and the camera light on your phone… I promise.

“Since I started using the app during its initial testing phase, I have experienced deep inner awareness through the totally incredible kaleidoscope of colours created by my subconscious.”