Carey Mulligan, the British actress with the Irish ancestry, says she first became familiar with her co-star Pierce Brosnan via a computer game!

The talented 24-year-old actress, who appears with the former James Bond star in the new film The Greatest, told Jimmy Kimmel last night that she spent hours controlling Brosnan as a character on her Nintendo 64 console.

'He was my Bond when we played Nintendo 64 when I was a kid,' Mulligan said. 'Id seen The Matador and a range of his films, so he wasn't just Bond to me but he kind of was. He was my Goldeneye.'

Mulligan, who plays the pregnant girlfriend of a boy who dies tragically in the film, said the pair broke the ice by going for a drink.

She said: 'I'm pregnant in the film for most of it and when we were filming I had to wear this big plastic prosthetic. Pierce asked if I wanted to get a drink and I was like 'yes,' which was very unprofessional.

'So I left the set in the bump because it takes 20 minutes to get it on and off and we go around to this bar. I'm like, 'this is so naughty, because I'm pregnant'. But we ordered two Martinis and they came like that. Nobody blinked an eye.'

Mulligan's great-grandfather emigrated from Ireland and she has one sibling, an older brother, with the distinctly Celtic sounding name Owain.