'Man with the Golden Gun' siren Britt Ekland says modern Bond girls have 'tough' time

Britt Ekland, who shot to fame in as a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun, fears the intense media scrutiny will take its toll on those taking up the roles today.

The Swedish actress, who played Mary Goodnight in the 1974 movie alongside Roger Moore’s 007, said: “I think it would be very tough to be a Bond girl today. There are so many demands that they can’t possibly fulfil them. And the media has changed.”

Ekland, who was married to comedian Peter Sellers for four years, continued: “The media in those days were very polite, they respected us. But we were very willing to share, it was give and take.”

Ekland, who was in London yesterday promoting the release of a Blu-ray boxset of Bond films, said the title of Bond girl “has been a good one to have over the years”.

She admitted that it had been “just another movie at the time,” before continuing: “It is only in the past 15 years that I’ve realised what a tremendous legendary thing it has been to be in a Bond film.”

The premiere did not go quite so well as the decision to curl her hair meant she went unrecognised by the journalists and photographers waiting outside.

“I walked in and no one took a blind bit of notice; they didn’t recognise me. The Bond PR people went beserk and told me to go back out again. They had to announce who I was. I have never curled my hair since.”

She is a fan of Daniel Craig after seeing Casino Royale. “He looks very good... He has a very lovely body,” she said, before adding: “But Roger is my Bond, the quintessential bond. He’s the way Ian Fleming wrote him: suave, elegant with funny quips. Roger is exactly the way he is in the movie.”