The ‘Bond girl’ who underestimated the obsession: “I was not prepared”
With the franchise having been running since 1962, it’s not unreasonable to assume that any prospective ‘Bond girl’ knows exactly what they’re getting themselves into when they audition to play a high-profile female character in the latest James Bond movie.
After all, it’s been a staple of the globetrotting spy saga ever since Ursula Andress first emerged from the sea in Dr No, with plenty of newcomers having seized the chance to secure an early role in a 007 blockbuster that has the potential to work wonders for their nascent filmography.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. While plenty of ‘Bond girls’ have enjoyed successful film and television careers before and after flirting with cinema’s most famous secret agent, there are enough who have faltered in their professional lives for the archetype to be viewed as something of a curse.
On all fronts, 2002’s Die Another Day was a major milestone for Bond. It was the 20th official instalment in the series; it was released on the 40th anniversary of Sean Connery’s unforgettable debut, and it left theatres as the highest-grossing entry yet. Beyond that, it was also Rosamund Pike’s feature debut, with the actor cast as secondary antagonist and love interest Miranda Frost.
She was only 23 years old when her first movie landed in multiplexes, and while it was a jarring introduction to the world of big screen acting, British native Pike surely would have realised her life would never be the same after her first time being credited in a feature of any kind was as an almost literal ice maiden in one of the biggest and most popular properties in pop culture.
Then again, there’s no real way for an untested actor to prepare themselves for the drastic uptick in interest, excitement, and borderline obsession generated by Bond, which left Pike feeling out of her depth. “I was not prepared when it hit,” she admitted to Yahoo a dozen years later. “I wish I’d had the perspective then that I had now.”
“I was the most naive candidate at the time. I had no agenda. I didn’t know what I was doing,” she explained. “I just went in and saw a character. That’s all I saw was a character, and I played that character in the audition. I never got an idea of what a ‘Bond girl’ should be because I don’t think there is such a thing.”
Die Another Day didn’t have an entirely positive impact on Pike either, after the Academy Award-nominated star confessed that when she was recognised in public and immediately associated with her breakthrough turn as a ‘Bond girl’, she denied it was her. It can’t be an easy thing for a first-time film actor to handle, and clearly struggled with the weight of the attention.
