| By Fred Topel
In Theaters Now
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Even when he’s not playing James Bond, Pierce Brosnan is usually a suave ladies man. That’s why it’s so surprising to see him as hit man Julian Noble in The Matador. Though the ladies will enjoy a shot of Brosnan in a speedo, they won’t think his hard drinking and profane ranting will be so cute. For Brosnan, the change was welcome.
“I love the twists and turns and the flamboyance, the sheer vulgarian way of Julian Noble’s mouth,” Brosnan said. “I thought it had good character and I thought it had good heart. I thought you enter into this heightened theatrical world where most hit men in movies leave off, we start. It just made me laugh.”
But where on earth could he derive the character traits of swearing at children and insulting their mothers? “Well, I’m an actor so my job is to act. Sometimes I haven’t been given much to act with but nevertheless I’ve gotten by. Well, he’s a lovable scumbag. That’s the razor’s edge of black comedy, dark comedy, whatever you want to call it. You’re constantly pushing the audience away, bringing them in, pushing them away, making them feel comfortable, uncomfortable. Hopefully you don’t lose them.”
And there is a universal comedy in drunk men walking through a hotel lobby in speedos. “It was the lobby of the hotel that we were living in for god’s sake, so all these men and women would see me every day and say, ‘Buenos Dias, Buenos Noches Mr. Brosnan, or Mr. Bond.’ I never escape him. So the day we came to do the scene, I had a bathroom on and as I was getting ready, I had the old knickers on and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll keep the boots on as well because they just look so funny. They look so silly with my skinny legs hanging out.’ And my partner, Beau Marie St. Clair, she said, ‘Well, now, you could keep the dressing gown on if you want or maybe pajama bottoms.’ I said, ‘No. Train’s left the station. This is too good. It’s a great piece of schtick. There’s many ways of looking at it.’”
With news of Brosnan’s departure from the 007 series, it may seem the time is right to change that image. The artist formerly known as Remington Steele has no ill will towards his persona, but sees it as an opportunity to shake things up, even if only once in a while.
“You’re fully cognizant of what you’re doing, especially when you’ve played the same role, created an image for yourself whether it be Thomas Crown or Remington Steele or James Bond. You’re aware of how you’re perceived and the image you’ve painted yourself into a corner with. I was looking and wondering when and how and what shape and form the character would come along that would kind of just jump your career in another direction. Or if you want to call it break the mold, I was there. You have to have patience. If I didn’t have this [production] company of my own, I don't think someone else would have come and offered me this role of Julian Noble. I wouldn’t have been at the top of the list. That’s the great benefit of having played Bond and having seen other men go down that road over the years. I wanted to come away with a bit more. I wanted to create a career for myself that’s hopefully going to keep going.”
The Matador ended a long run of work for Brosnan after which he enjoyed some quality time with the family. “I said, ‘Now I’m just going to see what the new year brings.’ Christmas came and the New Year was kind of scary. I thought, ‘Wow, do I really want to be going and playing that role and that role? Hanging out with the topliners and I’m going to play some kind of sleazy corporate man in a suit supporting role?’ Which is okay, but I kind of thought, ‘Let’s just have patience and hang back a bit here instead of always working.’ So the year off was great. It was wonderful. It gave me time to recover and find out what it was about.”
Brosnan’s children from his first marriage are all grown up, so his parenting duties are now cut in half. “I’ve just got the two boys here that are beside me. Sean is 22 and Charlotte and Christopher have their own life and that’s coming together gloriously, thank heavens. So it’s just little ones at hand. Four year old and an eight year old.”
Through his company, Irish Dreamtime, Brosnan is developing the kind of roles he wants to play, but sometimes the juicy ones are just out of his reach. “The Da Vinci Code, I wanted to do that. Someone named Tom, he’s done a few things, came from a sitcom, cross dressing. But [I] only [wanted that] because I was doing [i]After the Sunset[/i] in the Bahamas. Every time I’d look around, every man and his dog was reading this and people said, ‘You should play this role.’ So I read it and I thought, ‘I should play this role.’ I didn’t get it, so there you go.”
He did get The Matador, which is now playing in limited release. |
