Pierce Brosnon as James Bond? RIP — but he’s not in mourning as the day has finally come:
NEW YORK – A single, surprising phone call and it was over. That’s how Pierce Brosnan says he learned that his services as James Bond would no longer be required.
“One phone call, that’s all it took!” the 52-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Aug. 19 issue.
Brosnan starred in four Bond films. He says that before they stopped negotiations, the producers had invited him back for a fifth time.
“You know, the movie career for me really started with Bond,” says Brosnan, acknowledging that by the time “GoldenEye” premiered in 1995, he was already 42.
He then starred as 007 in “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997), “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) and “Die Another Day” (2002).
His departure from the role was a “titanic jolt to the system,” says Brosnan, followed by “a great sense of calm.”
“I thought. … I can do anything I want to do now. I’m not beholden to them or anyone. I’m not shackled by some contracted image. So there was a sense of liberation.”
Indeed, type casting is a problem for actors (and, actually members of families as WELL). Sean Connery always made it clear that James Bond was a double edged sword: it lifted him from minor roles to stardom and a huge bankroll, but he had to wear a hated toupee (which he often acted without once he walked away from Bond) and until later in his career it seemed to limit his roles. It was only once he had made the total break and Roger Moore and others took over the part that Connery an A-list actor because of his non-Bond roles.
Brosnan stayed just about long enough. Many Bond fans (including yours truly) think he was only second to Connery in his performance in the role. He’s bound to remain a hot character actor, if not an A-list actor.Now it’ll be interesting to see who wins out on the next casting decision. Bond stalwarts want to keep the same kind of actor. Others want to shake the franchise up a bit and pick a more unlikely choice.
PS: Rob Schneider may be available.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.