Gemma Arterton has revealed she would be happy to be called a Bond girl for the rest of her life.
The 26-year-old actress was speaking on the red carpet at the gala screening of her new film Song For Marion at the London Film Festival in Leicester Square.
Arterton, who played Bond girl Strawberry Fields opposite Daniel Craig in the last 007 outing Quantum Of Solace, said: "As long as I'm a girl when I'm 78 as well, I'll be very chuffed about that. I've always seen it as such an honour."
Dressed in a daring black Prada jacket, worn as a dress, she continued: "There's not many people in the world who can say they are, or have been, a Bond girl, so especially this year (the 50th anniversary of the Bond films), you realise what an amazing thing it is, and worldwide.
"You don't think many countries know about Bond but they do. It's huge and it's great to part of something like that."
In her latest role in Song For Marion, Arterton plays a choir master who befriends a grumpy old man (Terence Stamp) who joins the group after his wife (Vanessa Redgrave) is stricken with cancer.
She explained that she was in her element in the new film, from London To Brighton's Paul Andrew Williams.
"I'm a trained singer. That was what I started doing, and then I got into acting by accident," she said.
"So for me anything to do with music is always going to interest me more than anything else.
"I don't do as much singing as you'd think in this film, I'm conducting a lot.
"But it's great because it was just music all the time, and all these great songs, and it was just such a fun shoot for those reasons.
"I had to learn to play the piano, which was really good to learn, I've always wanted to learn."
Superman villain Stamp, 74, admitted singing on camera had been a daunting prospect, but explained that he was well prepared for the challenge.
He has previously played a transsexual drag queen in the Australian film The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, but he lip synced for that role.
Stamp said: "I only had time for two lessons to learn the songs, but the truth is that I've never really stopped studying my voice. So in many ways I was completely prepared, it was just that I'd never really done it in front of a camera.
"The thing any performer would tell you is singing is so intrinsically different from speaking, you never really know how the voice ... it's not your creature, it has a mind of its own, so that was always worrying.
"But once I started the movie I was so thrilled with it all, it was just a joy to go to work."
