the bond franchise

Rosamund Pike’s Bond Girl Audition Required Gratuitous Stripping

Rosamund Pike. Photo: Andrew Toth/Getty Images

Before we got to see Rosamund Pike’s double-crossing femme fatale kick major ass in James Bond’s Die Another Day — the film was released in 2002, statute of limitations for spoiler talk is over — Pike had a crisis of conscience when it came to her audition. See, Bond producers demanded Pike to strip down to her skivvies for her audition, as her character, Miranda Frost, wears a few revealing outfits in the film. But after a bit of reflection, Pike said no — even if that meant jeopardizing what became her breakout role. “I remember them saying I was to drop my dress and appear in my underwear,” she said in an Audible Session interview. “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.’ ”

Pike also said the film’s costume designer encouraged her to change out of her grandmother’s “beautiful” silk dress — the audition required women to wear a formal gown — in favor of a dress that had “three pieces of string.” Pike obliged, but still didn’t take it the dress off despite being asked to: “I realized 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.” Pike was quick to note, though, that her filming experience with Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day was an incredibly positive one.

Rosamund Pike’s James Bond Audition Required Her to Strip