Rosamund Pike: 'I avoided Bond girl curse'

Rosamund Pike has claimed that she never fell victim to the "Bond girl curse".

The actress starred in Pierce Brosnan's last outing as 007 in 2002's Die Another Day at the age of 23, but explained that the role was not bad for her career.

Pike suggested to The Guardian that the film sowed the seeds for the rebooting of the franchise which occured when Daniel Craig took on the role.

"Unfortunately, it all came together perfectly on Casino Royale, rather than on ours - making the women more active and less decorative," she said. "That's [producer] Barbara Broccoli's influence: who says a Bond girl can't have sex appeal and brains? That was her thinking."

Of the infamous 'Bond girl curse', she added: "Everyone sees the movies, that's the main benefit. Sometimes it irks when people come up in the street and say, 'Oh I'm a huge James Bond fan' - when you obviously want them to be a fan of your work in particular.

"But the Bond girl curse never happened to me. I was too young to even know what it was. And anyway, wasn't that where [Barney's Version star] Paul Giamatti spotted me? It all comes around in the end."