Pierce Brosnan could never "nail" Bond role

[Blowfeld]

Press Trust of India
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 (London)


Hollywood star Pierce Brosnan feels he never managed to get the character of James Bond completely right because he couldn't forget the actors who had previously played the suave British spy.

The 56-year-old actor, who played the British spy in four instalments of the movie franchise, feels his performances suffered because he couldn't forget how previous actors had portrayed 007, Venice magazine reported.

Brosnan - who took over the role from Timothy Dalton -said, "It was one of those things I always struggled with. I never felt that I really nailed it. There was always a hint of Sean Connery and Roger Moore that was so indelible in my own mind."

The star also says he knew the script for Tomorrow Never Dies, his second outing as Bond, was not as good as many had hoped it would be.

"When I did 'Tomorrow Never Dies' I knew the movie wasn't up to speed, it wasn't as good as Goldeneye," he said.

However, he is still glad he had the opportunity to play the iconic movie character.

"I'm proud to have played 007. It's a small group of men, a prestigious group to be in the company of," he said. Brosnan recently claimed he had never seen his successor Daniel Craig portray Bond in movies Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace.

"I haven't seen Daniel in the role. I tried watching it on an airplane. I thought 37,000 feet was a good distance to watch
it from and it broke down right at the beginning. The attendant came and changed it and it broke down a second time, so I figured, 'OK. The Gods must be saying something...' So I never went near it! I just thought, 'Let sleeping dogs lie," Brosnan said.

This story can be sound at Pierce Brosnan could never "nail" Bond role

[Blowfeld]

I'm just going to sting together a few of the recent Brosnan news stories here.

Brosnan pursues diverse roles

Actor breaks old bond with 007 persona
Monday, April 12, 2010 2:51 AM
By Amy Kaufman
LOS ANGELES TIMES
From left: Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin and Pierce Brosnan in Remember Me
Summit Entertainment
From left: Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin and Pierce Brosnan in Remember Me

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Pierce Brosnan was sitting on the patio of a restaurant sipping a beer recently when he was assailed by a gaggle of lively elderly women.

"You are gorgeous in person," exclaimed one lady with a thick New York accent who appeared to be in her 80s. "You look spectacular! I just got 20 years younger."

"You look gorgeous," Brosnan replied.

"Ugh! God, I'm in love. That's James Bond," she said, whispering to her friends as she shuffled away.

By the end of spring, Brosnan, 56, will have appeared in five new films this year - but to some, he'll always be James Bond.

It has been eight years since the release of Die Another Day, the last of the four films in which Brosnan reprised the iconic role of the unstoppable spy who loves women, fast cars and nifty gadgets.

Just as one of his predecessors, Sean Connery, was able to leave behind the Bond role later in his career, Brosnan also is hoping that audiences will eventually be able to see him as more than just the man of mystery.

That effort is reflected in Brosnan's latest spate of work. His most recent film, The Greatest, on which he also served as a producer, tells the story of a father grappling with the death of his son. It shares the serious tone of last month's release, Remember Me, in which he was embattled in a different kind of father-son relationship with teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson.

There has also been Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, in which Brosnan played an emotionally distant former prime minister, as well as his less dramatic turn as a bearded centaur in P ercy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

On April 22, he'll be heard as the narrator of the environmental documentary Oceans.

The diversity in projects was a conscious choice, Brosnan said. .

"I said to my agents, 'Look, it's time to really work, and to find and explore other avenues here as an actor,'" he explained. "It doesn't have to be leading roles. Let's not be tripped up by past information. It's time to try and have longevity as an actor."

The move surprised Shana Feste, the 33-year-old director of The Greatest.

"We never thought we could get someone like Pierce, with me as a first-time director on a low-budget film. It was the jackpot of actors for us," Feste said. "You associate him with Bond and this GQ, slick, sexy persona, but he's actually a real chameleon, and I don't think mainstream audiences have seen that yet."

Brosnan has been distancing himself from the Agent 007 image since one of his first big post-Bond roles, The Matador (2005), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for his turn as an eccentric, burned-out hit man.

"At the time, I was definitely still very connected to the image and the history of Bond," he said. "Even when I was in it. It just lives with you. It permeates your life. So you have to break the shackles of that."

Greg Kinnear, who also starred in Matador and will play opposite Brosnan again in the upcoming Salvation Boulevard, called the role "the best thing that could have happened" to Brosnan.

"I was sitting there watching this man painting his toenails purple and being completely fearless," he said. "I don't think he was even consciously reinventing himself. I just think of him more as a character actor than as a franchise player."

This story can be found at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/li ... ml?sid=101

[Blowfeld]

I'm not a star: Pierce Brosnan
Indo-Asian News Service
Monday, April 12, 2010 (Los Angeles)
Bond star Pierce Brosnan doesn't want to think too highly of himself because he feels it will limit his options as an actor.

"I'm not a Hollywood star, someday maybe it's a work in progress. I play leads and I have had some success here and there. But I want to work, so how do you deal with wanting to work and not letting the ego of self get in the way of that?

"You can trip yourself up by saying that you don't want to play something because it's a supporting role and you could end up with a whole lot of nothing," imdb.com quoted Brosnan as saying.

[Blowfeld]

Matt Damon’s Bourne Identity role dashed Pierce Brosnan’s 007 hopes

London, April 02 (ANI): Pierce Brosnan thinks that Matt Damon’s terrific role in ‘Bourne Identity’ series as a spy had an impact in his dismissal as the James Bond.

The actor insists that Paul Greengrass’ 2002 movie The Bourne Identity, redefined spy thriller films, leading movie bosses to look for a new James Bond with a different sense of style.

Brosnan revealed that he had discussed ‘Casino Royale’, for which Daniel Craig was selected as Bond, with filmmaker Quentin Tarantino on a boozy night out.

“That wasn’t meant to be. But we (Brosnan and Tarantino) had a great night. I could hardly walk. I had to call a driver up because I could just about put one foot in front of the other,” the Daily Express quoted him as telling Empire magazine.

He added: “He walked out of the door and then got into his Pussymobile and drove away. He’s a champion lad, Quentin… Yeah, it wasn’t meant to be for him, or for me.

“Once Paul Greengrass let Matt Damon out of the door in such an epic way, the spy genre turned on its head and my time was done. Because then you have a younger man there, and how are you going to move forward? And they (Bond bosses) couldn’t.

“If they were to do Casino Royale, they couldn’t do it with me. Choices were made. The decisions were drawn in the sand - albeit a little late in the day.” (ANI)

This story can be found at http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/ent ... 42569.html