Pierce Brosnan interview in Empire magazine - January 2006 issue

Empire magazine (UK) have just published an interview with Pierce Brosnan in their January 2006 issue. Below is an excerpt of what he had to say...

Was it an easy decision to walk away from James Bond?
I never made the decision not to carry on. They invited me back for a fifth and I said yes. I was excited to go back for the fifth. I was at a good level with the role in terms of relaxation, confidence and assuredness. Barbara [Broccoli] and Michael [G. Wilson], for reasons I don't know, had a crisis of confidence and decided to go in another direction, which is their prerogative. I wish them well. I have no hard feelings.

Playing this hit man having a bizarre mid-life crisis in your new film The Matador couldn't be a better way to move on...
I always thought it was funny: the reverence and the vulgarian style of this man Julian Noble. I thought he was outrageous. And the fact he was such an opposite to Bond was a huge attraction. If anyone else but my own company was producing it, they wouldn't have invited me in. I would have been the last person. It's both the destroying of an image and a turning-point, possibly.

How did you create him?
Everything you hear was on the page. I gave the script to a criminal psychologist in LA, and she did a profile on him. I was happy to see that it concurred with my own scribblings and intuition. In terms of the look, I grew this silly kind of Village People moustache. Clothes-wise, I said, "Cowboy boots." I had these high-heeled boots and that gave me the walk. This man goes all around the world killing people, so he's pretty mangled, mangles emotionally, mangled spiritually, and mangled sexually.

We even get to see the man who was James Bond walk through a hotel lobby in his pants!
It's the iconic image of the film. We'd been there for quite some time and, of course, all the girls knew I'd be there. When we came to shoot that scene, my producer Beau St. Clair said, "Maybe you should just walk though the lobby in your pyjamas?" I said "No, we've come so far, we're going in large, although I'll keep the boots on." Nobody knew, not the extras, no-one. It was just a classical f**k you, f**k you, f**k you.

Were you ever concerned that after The Matador it was no going back?
If I don't do it now, then when am I going to do it? You sort of find yourself painted in the corner, really, and having no fun. It's about mixing it all on the palette.

The movie seems to slip between a thriller and a comedy...
You couldn't play this as a hard-nosed, edgy thriller. We just wanted to make it a cool indie flick. From the opening - when he wakes up with a beautiful hooker, looks at her ass, paints his toenails, tells the kid to f**k off and blows the guy to smithereens - you know it's going to be funny.

As the ordinary guy who Julian latches onto, Greg Kinnear makes a great straight man...
Greg and I got on like a house on fire. He was fantastic. What I liked about the script was it had a wonderful theatricality - thse long scenes, 12-page, 15-page scenes - and that worked. With a great actor and a wonderful text you can actually crack it.

Is it true you're about to make a Western?
It is. It's with Liam Neeson and called Seraphim Falls, a Civil War Western. I'm a Union general. It's directed by David Van Ancken, who did a brilliant film called Bullet in the Brain. It's the first time I've done a Western, which is pleasing. It's all about getting a bit of variety.

You've recently become a naturalised American. Why was that important to you?
I've been there for 23 years and I wanted to have a voice, to be a citizen of the land, to participate in a country that I love and that has embraced be.

You have been fairly outspoken about the Bush administration. That can be risky...
Oh, it can shoot you down. I've nothing against Republicans, but I find it very difficult to have faith in this President. And that's coming from a man who has kids who have a future on this Earth, looking at what he's done to the environment and this savage war that has started. I'm a member of society and I have every right to speak of my own perspective. But I don't know, I've already had a backlash on the internet.

Do you still feel Irish?
Bring it on! I love a pint of Guinness. I lvoe Ireland, the people of Ireland, that I have Irish blood. My faith as a Catholic and my faiith as a human being and a creator has matured with time. That comes from your blood. Yeah - I'm a Paddy - I'm Irish and I'm proud.

Thanks to `vmsns` for the alert.

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