From Bond to blonde

There's a quiet exuberance about Pike, a sparkle in her manner and in her eyes that, until now, has been held back. There are long pauses before she answers questions, as if what she says might snare her in a trap of seeming immodest or complacent. Only now do you glimpse the energy and zest for life that clearly drives her.

Get her on to Bond and that exuberance takes full flight. 'It was an intoxicating experience,' she says but, because of the presence of the formidable Judi Dench, a 'terrifying one' also. 'The one day I met her I had my hair back, my suit on, and had the mantle of a cool, controlled character. That layering didn't expose the heart beating underneath. I mean, I've admired Judi Dench since I was tiny. I was longing to rip the clothes off and have a gossip. Instead she sat across the table from me, looking at me with the stern eyes of M.'

Transforming herself into a Bond babe was a physical revelation. 'It was a kind of unlocking of the body,' she says, stretching her torso upwards. 'I had to have the courage to go further and further with myself. I had to live up to being an Olympic champion.

All the normal limitations of what I set myself went out the window.' The training was rigorous, she says, but it made her feel fantastic. 'I became more conscious of my body. I felt good, stronger. I now like being physically fit. It speeds up everything, speeds up the mind.' She's downed her foil, however, and cycles and runs around West London where she grew up, and still lives, instead.

Right, that's the training out of the way. What I want to know is what Brosnan was like, you know, in flagrante? 'Oh, that has been so done!' says Pike sighing. Then she throws me a morsel of boudoir intimacy: 'You certainly wouldn't say he looks better on screen.' Emboldened, I ask if he, you know, made it easy for her, which is a mistake. 'He is charming and attractive and he helped me to have fun.' End of story.

Pike may be doing theatre now but she hasn't turned her back on movies. 'I look forward to the next film experience,' she says, but when I ask her if she'd do a steamy sex scene again, the strait-laced Pike bites back: 'How can I possibly know until I was asked.' Besides, she says, 'sexiness in films does not come from sex - some of the sexiest moments have taken place when there's been no sex at all.'

Pike, whose boyfriend, Simon, is a fellow thesp, doesn't know what she'll be doing after Hitchcock Blonde. She looks forward to a bit of spare time, even though she admits she's 'not good at switching off'. She also says she may well be a different person by the end of the play's run. 'The best thing about being an actress is that you get to live in a fantasy world,' she explains. 'Through your imagination your character takes you somewhere else.'

It's early days, but that somewhere else could well be Hollywood, and I wonder if being seriously famous features in her fantasy world. 'I don't think you can imagine it,' comes the considered reply. 'Acting is a merry-go-round. The horses go up and down, don't they?'

Hitchcock Blonde, from Thur 27 Mar, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs At The Royal Court, Sloane Square, SW1 (020-7565 5000).