From master spy to 'Matador'

Bond's a huge persona to get away from, says Pierce Brosnan, but acknowledges the new role has got him out of the box.

Retiring 007 Pierce Brosnan - whose four-film reign as superspy James Bond came to an abrupt end last year with the announcement that actor Daniel Craig would take over the iconic role and who has complained in print about the "titantic jolt to the system'' he initially felt upon getting the call that broke the news - would rather not say anything more on the subject. "I've spoken enough about it,'' he says, with a sigh, audible through the telephone. "I wish Daniel all the success and happiness.''

Past lingers

Still, the actor who has come to be associated with shaken-not-stirred cool, thanks to his association with writer Ian Fleming's character (not to mention his mid-1980s TV stint as playboy thief-turned-detective Remington Steele), feels the need to point out one thing: His role in The Matador as a profane, debauched hit man undergoing a midlife crisis is by no stretch of the imagination intended as a rebuttal to his debonair public image.

"It had nothing to do with ‘anti-Bond' anything,'' he says, calling that spin "so much publicity verbiage. I never thought, ‘This is great. It'll get me out of the box, out of the corner.'”

And yet, and yet.

Maybe taking the role even he acknowledges is a "gritty, sharp left turn'' from what he has been known for did have a kind of perverse appeal. "I'd been wondering when something would come along, for a number of years, as the belts got tighter and tighter on Bond,'' he says. "It's a huge persona to get yourself away from. I'd always been aware of that, even before the call came.''

The truth, says Brosnan (whose production company, Irish DreamTime, produced the film), is that he wasn't initially aware of how much of a left turn it would actually entail until well into the process. "You're only aware in the doing of it. (You think,) ‘This is going to surprise an audience.' They file into a darkened theatre: ‘Oh, look, there's Brosnan. He's wearing this crazy mustache, painting his toenails, says (expletive) off to a kid, blows a guy to smithereens, walks through a hotel lobby in his knickers.'

"Dark comedy is very difficult,'' Brosnan adds. "You have to bring the audience in and push them away at the same time.''

Dark role

The finished product, of course, is a little less dark than originally envisioned in writer-director Richard Shepard's early versions of the script. That's because Brosnan, as producer, suddenly began to have qualms that his character, a psychopathic assassin named Julian Noble, might be even more alienating than his decadent character in The Tailor of Panama.

"There was one weekend there where I had a petit mal,'' he jokes. "As I was setting sail on the project, I went instinctively. Then all at once I thought, ‘Is this too sharp of a turn? Has the pendulum swung too far?' So we investigated the script. And we pulled back. Technically, less is more, anyway. (Julian) originally was this flamboyant, vulgarian voice. And as much as I thought it was extremely funny in this vulgar way, I didn't want to bang on the audience's head.

"I made a lot of people very sad that weekend,'' he continues, recalling that as both leading man and producer, one sometimes has to be a behind-the-scenes heavy. "By Wednesday, it was all right. We simply pulled [Julian] back and took out some jokes that were just foul.''
Producing demands a completely different skill set from the classically trained actor, who after eight years of sharing producing duties with his longtime friend and business partner, Beaumarie St Clair, on films such as The Nephew, Evelyn, Laws of Attraction and The Thomas Crown Affair, says he is still learning the back-office ropes. "It's an ongoing education in literature, filmmaking and business - or, I should say, my own lack of business acumen. Fortunately, we've got a great team in place.''

Earlier examples

Brosnan compares the variety of films he has made for Irish DreamTime with examples of another art form. "I look at them like paintings,'' he says. "It's great to go out in big, bold colours, with a popcorn flick like Thomas Crown, and then to drop down into small drama like Evelyn.''

It's a mix of the large and small, of the multiplex and the art-house, of Hollywood and his Irish roots, and of playing bad guys and good guys that Brosnan has no intention of abandoning.