Pierce Brosnan: he went from Ireland to la-la land to become the very model of a modern major gentleman

Interview, Oct, 2002 by Ingrid Sischy

When Irishman Pierce Brosnan first came to Hollywood, all he had was a dream. After just a couple of weeks, he had a nine-week job on a new TV show called Remington Steele. Twenty years later, Los Angeles is Brosnan's home and his career has continued to flourish. Next month sees his fourth turn as James Bond in Die Another Day, while December sees the actor showing a softer side in Evelyn, a film he produced and stars in as a father fighting for custody of his children. James Bond--a family man? You better believe it.

INGRID SISCHY: As a young Irish lad, did you ever dream you'd end up in L.A.? In a beach house? With all of this?

PIERCE BROSNAN: [laughs] I had big dreams when I was a boy. And I can't say that I never saw a beach house in Malibu in those dreams. I wished for America; I wished for work in the movies. I came here 20 years ago and ended up getting a TV series called Remington Steele--

IS:--Wait, don't go so fast. Tell me a little bit about your childhood.

PB: My childhood, in reading it, kind of looks grim, but there was actually some magic there, and it definitely taught me to be a survivor. My dad left when I was an infant and I didn't see him again for mother 33 years, and then only one time. So I grew up with my mother and grandparents. My grandparents passed away when I was three or our and my mother went off to England, to be nurse and find a new life for her son and herself, and I stayed behind in Ireland. I lived with an uncle and then an aunt, so there was a real feeling of separation as I was growing up. There was a longing, a loneliness, a feeling of where does one fit in? What is home? Where is home?

There was a period of time when I was very angry bout it, but that is all behind us now. My mother someone I've come to admire greatly.

IS: When were you reunited with your mom?

PB: I went to live with her and my glorious stepfather in England in 1964.

IS: And did you always want to be an actor as you were growing up?

PB: I wanted to be a painter. I was good at painting and I was good at putting words on paper.

IS: Did you go to art school?

PB: I went to night school. I got a job designing in an art department, doing furniture illustration for the newspapers, and then in the evening I'd go to life-drawing classes. Then when I was 17 or 18, as I was hanging up my coat one day, I was talking to a guy about the movies. I loved the cinema, although at that stage I had no dreams or aspirations to be an actor. He invited me to this art lab called the Oval House Theatre. I went in that night and every night following and I literally gave up my job. Suddenly I found myself with writers and poets and black people, gay people, musicians and acrobats--it was a cross-section of people. Lovely, beautiful, mangled people. And I thought, At last--

IS:--You're home.

PB: Yes, because while I was working in the art department, I'd look at the other people and think, There's got to be more. But what is it?

IS: And how did you end up getting on a plane and coming to America?

PB: I had done a drama documentary for British television called Murphy's Stroke, and a producer from America saw me in it and gave me a role in The Mannions of America for ABC television. And that was my ticket to America. After the miniseries, it seemed to make sense to come to America. You know, I had something to sell. So I took a second mortgage out on the house in England that my late wife, Cassie, and I had bought, and got on the plane. I got an agent, and then at the end of the second week, the first interview I went on was for Remington Steele.

IS: What was your first impression of L.A.?

PB: I loved it. I felt comfortable. When I got to L.A. I was suddenly free. I was free of being Irish or English--I could be anything I wanted to be.

IS: Did L.A. feel real?

PB: [sighs] It was so exhilarating. First of all, you're bathed in this blue light, where everything is set against the harsh blue sky and the space above you is vast. Then you're confronted with being inside a car and not being able to walk in that space, and you're driving to places that seem rather lonely. [laughs] Ultimately it felt like putting on a beautiful coat; it just felt easy. It came with a lot of feelings of displacement, but I was doing something I had always dreamt of.

IS: And when did 007 come along?

PB: In '86. It was before NBC cancelled Remington. The film producers offered me Bond, but then the show's ratings went up, so the network put the show back on. Ultimately, they wouldn't let me out of the Remington Steele contract, so I lost the Bond gig and Tim Dalton did it.

IS: But then Bond came back for you?

PB: Yes, in '94.

IS: And in November you'll be releasing your fourth Bond film. But you also have another movie, Evelyn. due out at the end of the year. It has parallels with your own life, doesn't it?

PB: It has parallels up to a point. It's set in Ireland. I was born in Ireland in '53, and the story takes place in that year. It concerns a broken family, and it's about a father, and I am now a father of a big family. It was a lovely picture because it allowed me to play the emotions of a man who is fighting his heart out for his kids. And I produced the picture through my company, Irish Dream Time, so it's something I'm proud of.