Pierce Brosnan Talks Like A "Matador"

By Cole Smithey

In writer/director Richard Shepard’s cheeky black comedy "The Matador" Pierce Brosnan takes a running stab at his former iconic image as James Bond by playing a worldly, insecure and immature contract killer. Julian Noble (Brosnan) is an eccentric omnisexual hit man with a knack for a dirty joke. While on assignment in Mexico he meets straight-laced Denver businessman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) and the two men strike up an uncomfortable conversation that will lead to an uncomfortable friendship which will eventually end up saving each man’s life, or lifestyle at least. In Shepard’s wonderfully unpredictable movie Pierce Brosnan is the last of a dying breed, hence the film’s title, but he’s also an actor who can slap his audience and kiss them in the same breath. The effect is hilarious. Pierce Brosnan sat down at Manhattan’s famed Essex House Hotel to discuss his career.

Q: What is it like playing a contract killer?

Brosnan: I loved playing Julian Noble in this movie. Richard Shepard came bearing gifts. It happened at a very wonderful time in life. The script, the character, the performance. I thought it was wildly entertaining. It was a good read. I never knew when the story was going to twist and turn. I thought we could go away and make a cool, slick, hip independent movie and get away with it, and so far, so good. I thought there were jokes in there, which the audience would get in abundance because of my past performances -- one performance in particular. Richard gave such a wonderful free flow jazz riff in his writing and he wrote it without any censorship.

Q: What drives you in your career?

Brosnan: I have always had a strong healthy ambition and desire and certainly a passion for work. I love being an actor. I love everything I have ever done. Whether the audience liked it or not was sometimes painful -- sometimes not. But I just love being an actor I love the life of acting and reading and literature. What drives me? – to make good work to make good movies and to play with the best people possible.

Q: What was it about the script and the character that jumped out at you?

Brosnan: It made me laugh and it surprised me. It had humanity and a certain sincerity to it. It was twisted and dark. Doing dark comedies are not easy, you are always pushing the audience away, and brining them in and pushing them away and bringing them in. Sometimes you can leave them out there hanging and you’ve lost them. The relationship with Danny and Bean was so idyllic, sweet, loving and tender and soulful and juxtaposed between Julian’s vulgar, twisted ways.

Q: How do you keep us on your side? There is one line "all the teenage twat in Thailand," how do say that and still have us with you through the whole picture?

Brosnan: You try and get them from the very beginning. A fellow who wakes up with some broad in the bed and audiences have seen Brosnan do that before. You’re overweight, messed up, not sure if you’re having a heart attack or a seizure, then you paint your toenails. That dismantles everything from the get go. He’s got an arrested development. There’s a little boy he tells to "f off" and then some kind of nursery rhyme, "see you wouldn’t want to be you," you know this man is not quite all there. You’re not sure what he’s looking for. As an audience member you’re not even sure if Brosnan is in the right movie or not, or in the right theatre. So as an actor that theatrically, it’s kind of a push me--pull me conflict. I thought he was a charming character. He had great vulnerability. The killing, schmilling, whatever, there is no violence. It’s sort of a man who is having a rough time, who happens to kill people.

Q: How was it filming in Mexico?

Brosnan: There was such trepidation on going down there because it has been painted in colors of violence and kidnapping and there is an underbelly of civilization that is desperate and poor. I came away with the art. I came away with the painters, the work I saw down there. I set up my own studio because I paint. I started as an artist of some sort and I still continue that. We had bodyguards and armored vehicles. That was a strange thing to be under. It was a fabulous experience; the overall package was just great. It was a small community of actors. We were all passionate for it. The Mexican crew embraced us and we embraced them back.

Q: What projects do you like to be involved with?

Brosnan: I like projects that have some kind of humanity and some kind of emotional content that makes me laugh, makes me cry, makes me want to turn the page. Desmond Doyle ("Evelyn") and Julian Noble ("Matador") are two different films but the same film really. Same film because they have a certain heartbeat to them, religion to them, faith in them -- one man who is fighting for his kids and this is a man who is brotherless, lost and looking for life, looking for love.

Q: How do go from playing a stock character like Bond to focusing on craft?

Brosnan: I always see actor first and foremost. I’m an actor, that’s my job. Movie star, I certainly wanted to be a part of that echelon of actors, I certainly wanted to play a movie star. I’ve played movie star and now I want to go back to being an actor. I have always been an actor. It’s giving a performance and this film allowed me to give a performance. It came at just the right moment in life.

Q: What’s next for you?

Brosnan: "Butterfly on a Wheel," this thriller that we are going to try and do. It’s a three-hander. It’s a tight little piece. We are going to shoot it in San Francisco. It’s a small drama. I have no idea of where it’s going. We have a film called the "True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle" with Danny Devito and Morgan Freeman. Danny adapted the book. It’s a period piece in 1832. Danny wanted me for the role of captain and asked me to produce it. Hopefully we will go off to New Zealand and make this.

Q: What was the best book you read this past year?

Brosnan: I have been steeping myself in the Civil War and "The Killer Angels" is amazing and "The March" is great.

Q: Are you a fan of history?

Brosnan: It comes and goes. A whole year can go by and I won’t read a book and then I will try and catch up. Dostoyevsky’s "The Idiot," I bought it for my son, because we needed good literature and we’re reading it together.

Q: What kind of music do you like?

Brosnan: Annie Lenox has come back into my life -- a soulful singer. I listen to a lot of Indian music, Indian as in Native American.

Q: Would you be a painter if you were not an actor?

Brosnan: I don’t think I could make a living at it, but I would be in the arts in some way or another. It’s just a hobby. I’m an enthusiastic painter. I like it. I think about when all this goes away just sitting out there in Hawaii painting away.

Q: What are your favorite films this year?

Brosnan: I don’t get out much. I got some screeners. I thought North Country was great, I thought Charlize was wonderful, I thought Woody was outstanding. I’m looking forward to seeing Walk the Line. I saw Good Night, And Good Luck.

Q: What do you think about the new actor playing Bond?

Brosnan: I wish him well. There is a new chapter for Bond and a new chapter for Brosnan. He will be great. He’s a fine actor.