Actress Rosamund Pike has recounted the time she was asked to strip down to her underwear while auditioning for the James Bond film Die Another Day.

Pike, who was 21 at the time, refused the request at the time but still landed the role as character Miranda Frost and played opposite Pierce Brosnan in the 2002 film.

“My first audition was for a Bond film and I remember them saying I was to drop my dress and appear in my underwear,” she told Amazon’s Audible Sessions.

“On the day, I don’t know how I got the resolve and strength of mind, but I just thought ‘actually sod that, if they’re gonna see me in my underwear, they better give me the job’.

“So, I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to take off a dress in the audition for this tape to be sent around Los Angeles and to be judged on that’.”

Discussing the audition in more detail, Pike explained how producers asked her to turn up to the audition in evening dress and decided to wear an outfit once owned by her grandmother: “[The costume designer] said, ‘That’s a very beautiful dress, but in Bond films we wear things a little more like this’, and she held up three pieces of string,” Pike continued.

“I realised I was in a completely different world and way out of my depth. So, I put on this shimmering sheath, or whatever the order of the day was, but I didn’t drop it.”

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In other James Bond related news, producers of the forthcoming James Bond film have outlined Helena Bonham Carter as their desired actor to play the role.

The 52-year-old double Oscar nominee, who previously took on a villainous role in films such as 2010’s Alice In Wonderland and 2007’s Sweeney Todd, is thought to be the top of producers wish list for the 25th Bond film.

The film, which is likely to be Daniel Craig’s final performance as Bond, will be released November 8th, 2019 and be directed by Danny Boyle.

An insider told the Daily Mirror that the frontrunners are Bonham Carter and Angelina Jolie: “Everyone thinks Angelina Jolie is going to get the part but bosses want Helena more,” they said. “At the moment they are just finalising the cast.”

Should Jolie pip Bonham Carter to the role, it would mark her second time acting alongside Craig, the pair having both starred in 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

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