I was forced to flee communist Czechoslovakia at just 18 years old before moving to the UK and becoming a Bond girl with Roger Moore – he was very different to what I expected

For most people, being cast as a Bond girl alongside the legendary Sir Roger Moore would be the most memorable moment of their entire lives. 

But for Anika Pavel, now 75, starring in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me was just another chapter in her extraordinary story. 

Born Jarmila Kocvarova in the then-communist state of Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, a young Anika dreamed of moving to England after reading Jane Eyre and listening to The Beatles – despite people in her small hometown of Piestany calling her ‘crazy’. 

Encouraged by her mother, at the age of 18, she managed to flee life behind the Iron Curtain for new opportunities in the UK – first living as an au pair in Ipswich, before working as a secretary in a legal office in London.

Her first night in the capital saw her sleeping rough in Victoria train station until she found a place to stay at the Young Women’s Christian Association hostel (YWCA). 

Even then, wrapped up in her sweater to keep warm with a simple snack of apple and cheese, Anika knew that, when morning came, her life was ‘about to begin’.

Ten years later, her wildest dreams came true when she was cast alongside Moore’s 007 in James Bond and her life changed ‘overnight’ – an experience she recalls in her new book, Encounter With The Future. 

Speaking to FEMAIL, she revealed: ‘My life changed dramatically, to see my face all over the London on the cover of magazines.

‘It was very thrilling for somebody like me, who was a tomboy in a country where I remember carts being pulled by horses on a street because they don’t know cars. 

‘In Czechoslovakia, we had no TV. The first time I saw TV, I was 14 or 15. So you know, it was magical.’ 

It had all started back in 1968 when Anika won a modelling competition with the Daily Mail, crowned as just one of 10 winners out of 800 applicants. 

The young starlet had seen an announcement in the paper, who were looking for international models to compete in a show at Olympia. 

The competition gave Anika to be seen in the public eye for the first time. And what followed was a dizzy stream of modelling opportunities and photoshoots, eventually landing her with an agent.   

On whether she ever expected to win, Anika laughed: ‘Absolutely not. It was just luck. 

‘And really, I almost left because I thought, “oh my goodness, I do not belong here”. I don’t know what they saw in me, but they saw something and I was selected. It was a pivotal time. It changed my life.‘

Living in 1960s London, Anika had the opportunity to wear what she wanted and to follow her dreams for the first time. 

‘It was such an exciting time,’ she said. ‘People really believed in the future. I was not treated as other, I was not treated as a foreigner. Everyone just welcomed me and wanted to help if they could.’ 

After a slew of TV commercials, Anika began modelling for Playboy, eventually earning enough money to send home to her mother, who was ill with cancer. 

Eventually she auditioned for James Bond and was cast alongside Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me. 

It was a busy schedule, filming for the new movie during the day and still modelling for Playboy three or four nights a week.  

‘I had always had responsibility of supplying the medication my mother needed,’ Anika explained. 

One of the highlights of her time in Bond was working with the late Roger Moore himself, who sadly passed away in 2017. 

Praising her ‘charming’ and ‘extremely kind’ co-star, Anika said: ‘It was great. He was a true professional and absolutely respected everyone on the set. 

‘Everyone had a role to play. And he respected everybody. Cameramen, the lighting man, everybody on the set was important, because together we created something that people wanted to see.

‘Everybody loved him.’ 

She explained how Sir Roger wasn’t exactly as she had expected – but only in a good way. 

‘I was a little bit surprised at the time how funny he was,’ she recalled. 

‘He had a great sense of humor. You know how much we laughed. He’s like, killing the bad guys with a fierceness that you see on screen, but then there’s the lightheartedness and the joking and the laughter. 

‘I admired how he can go from a really a light, laughing face to the face that you would be frightened to meet on a dark night.’

On set, Anika said the atmosphere was ‘very relaxed’, despite the serious scenes they were filming, adding that no one ‘took themselves too seriously’.  

In 2012, she reunited with Moore at an event to celebrate the anniversary of James Bond in New York. 

She said: ‘The way he treated me was incredibly generous. How he was willing to share a spotlight with me. That’s really rare in stars and it was special.’ 

Juggling her modelling career with her new on-screen fame, Anika was able to afford her own apartment in the city. 

In 1968, Anika had faced another hurdle when Russian tanks invaded Czechoslovakia, making her a refugee. 

All citizens were recalled back, but she bravely decided to stay, even marrying a close friend, who she admits ‘saved her’. 

Years later, aged 28, she married ‘for real’, eventually moving to Hong Kong and then the US with her husband Jim. 

Though she’s since lost contact with her first ‘husband’, Anika would love to find him again, and hopes her new book will reunite them.  

She said: ‘It’s something that really pains me. I have no address, I have no idea where he is. 

‘I still hope that at some point, somehow, maybe through the book I will. He will find me, and I would just like to say to him that I have never, ever stopped being thankful to him.’

After James Bond, she worked with Benny Hill and featured in his parody of Bonnie and Clyde. She’s also known for her roles in 1979’s The Golden Lady and Confessions of a Window Cleaner in 1974.

After moving to Hong Kong, Anika said work never ‘really picked up again’ aside from several TV commercials. 

She said she became ‘more of a mother’, raising money for various charities and moving to the US – and Cape Cod, where she now resides.  

Eventually, she turned to writing, harking back to her initial dreams of becoming a journalist when she first moved to England. 

After penning several short stories, Anika has now written about her extraordinary life in a memoir titled Encounter With The Future, which is out now. 

‘Some have said the book made them laugh, others say that it made them cry. Mostly, I hope the book will uplift people,’ she said. 

‘My life was affected by luck. My view is that never give up, because after the tanks, came Daily Mail [winning the competition]. 

‘The important thing is to be able to deal with the bad and the good in the right way – fend off the bad and take advantage of the good.’

As for James Bond, Anika admits Roger, of course, was her favourite, though she did also have a soft spot for Pierce Brosnan. 

In the future, she would like to see the franchise try casting a woman in the lead role -placing her bets on Emma Stone. 

As a Bond Girl in the 1970s, she admitted it was a ‘different era’. 

‘It’s a great franchise, I’m a big fan and I can’t wait for the new one to come out!’ she said.  

Anika’s book, Encounter With The Future, is out now.