Pierce Brosnan admits he can't watch himself as James Bond

As Pierce Brosnan was talking to The Telegraph for an interview about his new film "The Love Punch", a suave young Frenchman stops in front of their table. “James Bond,” he says. “In another life,” replies Brosnan, and shakes his hand. This is not an infrequent occurrence. Being Bond was like being “an ambassador to a small nation”, says Brosnan. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving, that allowed me to create my own production company and make my own movies.”

His sons – he has three, one by his first wife, and two by his second – often complain that he won’t watch the Bond movies with them; his feelings towards the role are equivocal. “I felt I was caught in a time warp between Roger and Sean,” he says, “It was a very hard one to grasp the meaning of, for me. The violence was never real, the brute force of the man was never palpable. It was quite tame, and the characterisation didn’t have a follow-through of reality, it was surface. But then that might have had to do with my own insecurities in playing him as well.” Has he ever re-watched the movies? He mock-shudders. “I have no desire to watch myself as James Bond. ‘Cause it’s just never good enough.” He laughs mirthlessly. “It’s a horrible feeling.”

Last year, Brosnan produced and starred in a film called The November Man, an adaptation of Bill Granger’s thriller There Are No Spies, which marks a return to the genre that made his name. “There’s enough time between my being James Bond and now,” he says. “Daniel [Craig] is James Bond; I was James Bond; I think there’s enough room on the stage to elbow my way in and find some audience.”

Could he be beginning a later life action-man renaissance, à la Liam Neeson? The Telegraph mentions that there’s been talk of him doing the next film in The Expendables, the geriatric action movie franchise. He rolls his eyes. “It was idle dinner conversation with [the producer] Avi Lerner. He said, ‘do you want to be in it?’ I said, ‘sure, Avi, let me have a look at the script’. But it’s the internet, it all snowballs. What I did say to him was if you want to do a female version of The Expendables, I’ll be in that one.”

Discuss this news here...