How does your character, Miranda Frost, compare to earlier Bond girls?
I think both Halle and my character both play Bond at his own game, which is what is striking about this film. I think the sexual politics of the film are quite unusual for a Bond movie, in that they're much more mutual, they're kind of, you know, people using sex as a weapon - the girls as well as Bond.
Miranda has read the files on Bond, she knows the games he plays, she knows who the man is. I don't think there's been many other girls, if any, who knew in such black and white terms what they're dealing with when they come up against Bond. There's no illusion that she might fall in love with him or think that she was the only girl in the world for him, which I think other girls in the past have been seduced into believing.
Similarly, I think when Jinx and Bond go to bed, it's kind of a kick for both of them, it's not only Bond who benefits, or initiates. Plus, we're both taken seriously in top jobs. There was always an element before that if someone said they were a top fighter pilot, it belonged in the realm of fantasy, whereas now it belongs in a much more real world.
You get to share a scene with Madonna. Was that especially daunting?
It's amazing. It was funny being with [director] Lee Tamahori that day, because he didn't often talk to us or use our names very much, he was so in the world that he'd talk about Graves and Bond and Miranda. But I tell you, when it was Madonna, it was, "Madonna, do this. Madonna, can you come over here?" It's only once in a life you get to boss somebody like that about. It's just so funny, though, to see a face that you know so well, and to see it close up. You have to kind of condense all of those graphic and amazing and iconic images into one woman's face. Madonna wrote the soundtrack of our growing up, I think she's fantastic. We didn't know if she was going to turn up, and she was dead professional and quite fun really and, I guess, nervous.
Did you have any embarrassing moments during the shoot?
I always feel a responsibility towards these things, not to dispel myths, but when you do a love scene you tend to wear what they call 'modesty panels'. They use tape to tape these things to you, and Pierce and I have this scene where we're in this ice swan and there were a lot of furs around. We pulled away after the scene and I looked down to check the tapes and there were these hairs sticking out. I thought, "Oh my God, I'm pulling off Pierce's chest hair!" And then, of course, I realised it was just the kind of teddy bear fur they'd used for the blankets. I was trying to make sure he didn't see.
How did you feel on your first day on the Bond set?
It's terrifying. The first day was with Judi Dench, who has been one of my lifelong heroes, really. Everybody said, "That'll be lovely, she's so lovely, that'll be fantastic," but it was terrifying, absolutely terrifying. People don't give you credit for nerves when you're done up to look completely sophisticated and cool. It's funny, it has a funny effect on people, because people, however much they don't want to equate you with a character, they kind of do. In terms of that, I was feeling like I was learning to swim, and they thought I was casually treading water. It wasn't easy, ever. I was nervous, really, for six months, coming and going, but maybe the best scenes come out of the ones you're most nervous in.
