Rosamund Pike has returned to the stage following her award-winning performance on London's West End to berate an audience member for texting during the show.
According to The Times, the actor, 47, who won an Olivier award for her role as a crown court judge in Inter Alia, was initially believed to be returning for a solo standing ovation, but surprised everyone by indicating for them to sit back down.
Pike then accused the unnamed individual of breaking the bond between cast and audience by texting during the play's emotional finale.
"Somebody was texting in this part," she said to a portion of the crowd on Saturday night. "You know who you are, and I'm not going to single you out."
The audience then cheered as she explained how upsetting it had been for her on stage.
"I just wanted to say, for anyone going to the theatre, it's a huge thing that we're trying to give you. I am trying to tell you a story, and I'm feeling you, and I hope you're feeling me too."
An audience member said afterwards that Pike had seemed "genuinely upset", according to The Times.
"She suggested that someone texting in the climax of this devastatingly emotional play broke this bond. She seemed genuinely upset," a source told the publication, adding they all felt like they had "let her down" as she had "given her all" to the show, which runs for 100 minutes with no interval.
"We all felt a bit stunned. It's a very emotional play. She indicated the area of the stalls where the person was sitting, but said she would not single them out."
"She joked that maybe they were a doctor who saved someone's life, and she hoped that was the case."
Inter Alia was written by Australian playwright Suzie Miller, who also penned Prima Facie, starring Jodie Comer.
Pike is not the first high-profile actor to call out an audience for poor theatre etiquette.
Benedict Cumberbatch pleaded with fans outside the Barbican theatre in London not to film his performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet back in 2015, telling the crowd gathered there that it was "mortifying" for those on stage to spot "cameras and red lights".
"It may not be any of you here but it's blindingly obvious," he told them.
In 2009, Hugh Jackman publicly blasted an audience member whose phone rang loudly during a deeply emotional moment in his two-man play, A Steady Rain, which co-starred Daniel Craig.
According to witnesses, the Aussie actor broke character to turn to the culprit, seated in the front row, asking sarcastically: "You wanna get that?"
"Grab it. I don't care, grab it. Grab your phone, it doesn't matter," he went on.
