Pierce Brosnan enjoys telling Bond producers to `get lost`

Pierce Brosnan is having the last laugh after being ditched for a newer model by James Bond producers - and he's loving every minute.

Brosnan has made no secret of his anger towards the studio bosses who replaced him with blond actor Daniel Craig earlier this year. But now, thanks to a best actor Golden Globe nomination for his newmovie TheMatador, Brosnan can finally move on - reports the Daily Record.

He said: "I'm feeling very free creatively. "This is one of the best roles I've ever had the chance to play and it's something I've been searching for as a way to makemymark so that people won't bewonderingwhy I'm not playing Bond instead.

"It allows me to tell the Bond producers, 'get lost', with the greatest of pleasure."

The distinguished 53-year-old star is best known for playing slick gentlemen characters, including Remington Steele in the Eighties television series and art thief Thomas Crown as well as 007.

But, almost unbelievably for his legions of fans, the Irish actor often lacks confidence - and is prone to black moods and self-pity.

He said: "I don't know if I should blame it on the old black Irish melancholy, but I frequently find myself wallowing in my own preposterous dark moods.

"I've suffered from a lot of self-pitying over the years and no matter how much success I've had it's never enough to erase those nagging doubts. I can be my own nemesis."

In The Matador, he plays Julian Noble, a burnt-out, suicidal hitman who strikes up a relationship with Danny Wright, an affable, down-on-his-luck businessman (Greg Kinnear) and his wife (Hope Davis).

In the depths of a mid-life crisis, Julian suddenly realises he has no friends and the film enters that difficult territory between genres - part comedy, part thriller - as Julian tries to connect to Danny while the latter is both fascinated and horrified by Julian's trade. The film works, andmuch of the credit is due to Pierce's striking and charismatic turn as the assassin whocomes in from the cold.

But he still harbours resentment with the wayhewas abruptly fired from the 007 role. He said: "It could have been the money, although I was negotiating for a salary appropriate to what the going rate is for an actor whose films in this case are earning $300 to $400 million.

"But it was still a shock when they told me over the phone that they had decided to go in another direction and look for a new Bond. I was terribly upset at first.

"I hadn't expected it emotionally, although rationally I knew that they didn't like the fact I was pushing them to toughen up Bondand let him live like Bondand not a gadget freak pansy. "Even when I did a sex scene with Halle Berry, I felt like I was back in the old Hollywood Hays Code days where the man always had to keep one foot on the floor.

"I didn't want to do a bland Bond anymore. I wanted the killing to be more real and the sex to have more gusto."

While no one in Hollywood would fault Pierce and his agent for asking for a $20 million pay cheque for doing the fifth Bond film, losing the role may well have fuelled the self-doubt.

And though he won't blame his self-esteem issues onan ugly and at times cruel upbringing, it is easy to locate the source of Brosnan's lack of self-worth.The actor, born in the small Irish village of Navan in 1952, was abandoned by his father, Tom, before his first birthday, although they reconciled to a limited extent in 1986.

When Pierce was four, his mother, May, went to London to attend nursing school, and he was cared for by relatives until he was allowed to join her in England seven years later.

He said: "It was one of those situations where you grow up without a father, and for a certain period, without even a mother, and it's hard.

"I knew I didn't have a father and I certainly missed having a father. I was very aware of it. "But I knew I had to make the best of the situation. I suppose it mademe a bit of a loner because you have to take care of yourself.

"You have to be your own parent.You have to act as if you have everything sewn up, that you're cool, but you're not really, you're just acting."

When Brosnan left the tranquillity of his grandparents' countryside home and moved to London, the kids in his new school often tried to bully him for being Irish.

He said: "They certainly tried to beat meup and at the beginning they almost got away with it. But then you fight back.

"Of course, I am not big into violence. I find it so unnecessary in the real world so instead of fighting all the time I decided it was easier to make people laugh and talk my way out of situations. And I tried to fit in.

"I tried losing my accent because I was ashamed of the way I sounded. I wanted to belong and that comes with a certain pain and anger and frustration."

He quit school when he was 15 and soon found kindred spirits in London's fringe theatre scene, performing on the street and with a performance art group. He even took up fire-breathing as one of his stage specialties.

He recalled: "There was the occasional fried tongue and singed eyebrows, but it was incredibly thrilling nonetheless."

Hewenton to be accepted into the Drama Centre in Londonandby his early twenties Brosnan hademerged as a popular young stage and TV star in Britain. It was a life-saver. He said: "When I found acting that was the greatest relief becausethen I could be anything. Andwhen I found a company of actors and the life of acting I wasno longer alone.

"I was with other people who were kind of mangled, wonderful, creative and funny and had risen above their own kind of cracked backgrounds. And I just knew I'd come home, that I'd found sanctuary."

Over the years, however, he discovered his cool facade was maybe not helping him.

He said: "A lot of your life is spent putting on a brave face, so that everything slides off you, until you face some tragedies of your own.

"When youcome face-to-face with maybe not being able to hold things together, you find that the cool veneer is just a sad and patheticfront which leaves you very empty at times." The tragedy in Brosnan's life came with the death of his beloved first wife, Cassie, from ovarian cancer in 1991.

During that time Brosnan's career was in freefall. Remington Steele hadbeen cancelled in 1987 - several months after its producers refused to let him out of his contract to accept the role of James Bondwhichhe'dbeen offered. He said: "I faced the prospect of having to sell our house or finding another regular series role even though that would have been a disaster because my children neededme very badly after their mother died andworking on a weekly series would have meant spending very little time with them.

"It was the most trying time of my life. But in the end I pulled myself andmy family through it - I hadno choice, that's your duty as a father, so don't give me too much credit - andwhen Bondcame calling a second time, it turned my life around.

Those childhood demons somehow prevented him from ever fully enjoying his fame, fortune, and happiness as a husband and father the second time around with wife Keely Shaye Smith.

He said: "I remember intense loneliness in myown childhood, so you grow up with those wounds in your heart and it never leaves you. "There's always that rip in your soul and you make it a point to give your own children everything you have, everything."

"I'm happy with the knowledge that I've been the best father I could be, even when I had to work a lot and not be around for several months at a time. So if anyone asked mewhat I'm most proud of in my life, I would never talk about my career, I would always talk about my family. "You can't call yourself a goodman if you can't look after your wife and children and give them a happy life."

Brosnan lights up at the prospect of a Golden Globe prize andmaybe even an AcademyAward nomination too. He said: "A trip to the Oscar ceremonies?Whoknows.

"I would love to be up there, I'd love to be part of it. It's something which, as an actor, you sit back and you think 'Well, someday maybe I'll find a role, and I'll just nail it'. So yeah, it would be mighty."

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