{"id":15624,"date":"2025-08-22T06:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/15624\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T06:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:58:09","slug":"john-huston-said-i-was-too-handsome-it-can-get-in-the-way-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/15624\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018John Huston said I was too handsome. It can get in the way\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I told friends I\u2019d be talking to Pierce Brosnan<\/a>, more than one jocularly suggested I should ask if he planned to stand for president of Ireland. That race is in a state of head-spinning chaos. This fellow is in. Then he\u2019s out again. This person isn\u2019t going to run. Now they are. <\/p>\n

Madder notions than Brosnan have been suggested. You can easily imagine him welcoming the king of Belgium to a barbecue at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have never considered it, nor will I consider such a notion,\u201d he says. \u201cNo, there are better men than I for such a post. I love being an actor. Being an actor has been my life force.\u201d<\/p>\n

He seems amused by the idea but also flattered that his name has come up even in jest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s very nice of people who say such things,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I think, with us Irish folks, we travel well. There\u2019s a warmth to our people. There\u2019s a warmth, and there\u2019s a strength. There\u2019s a fine alchemy of madness and a delicious kind of boldness.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no getting away from the fact that Brosnan, now in his early 70s, looks utterly fabulous. As we are settling into our seats at Claridge\u2019s \u2013 still the grandest of the old Mayfair hotels \u2013 in London, he mentions he decided to put a suit on this morning. Well, obviously! I could no more imagine him arriving in casual clothes than I could imagine him turning up dressed as a Morris dancer. He is that bloody suave.<\/p>\n

I suppose you could take him for a chap of his age, but, though a tad creased, he still looks as conventionally handsome as the Navan man who found fame on the American detective series Remington Steele 40 years ago. <\/p>\n

Such is his image that many fans of Richard Osman<\/a>\u2019s Thursday Murder Club were puzzled when he was cast as Ron Ritchie, former trade-union bruiser, in Netflix<\/a>\u2019s imminent adaptation of that hugely successful cosy-crime novel. They were expecting someone in the Ray Winstone vein.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I read it I thought: Ray,\u201d he says, amused. \u201cNorth London? Maybe south London? I\u2019m Irish. My Irish accent has kind of diminished over the years. But it\u2019s there somewhere. I just went with the flow of it, really. I went with the flow of the casting. I love Ron. Ron and I are joined at the hip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Thursday Murder Club: Pierce Brosnan. Photograph: Giles Keyte\/Netflix <\/p>\n

Brosnan has done all right for himself. Childhood in Drogheda and Navan. Adolescence in London. Acting school at the city\u2019s prestigious Drama Centre. Telly work in the United States. A life-changing stint as James Bond<\/a>, Ian Fleming\u2019s indestructible spy, during the millennial years.<\/p>\n

But I do wonder if being that handsome might occasionally have been a problem. He doesn\u2019t get the character roles that come the way of Brian Cox or Brendan Gleeson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHa ha! They\u2019re coming down the road. I\u2019d like to think they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brosnan remembers meeting John Huston<\/a> to discuss a role in the director\u2019s famous 1987 adaptation of James Joyce\u2019s story The Dead. <\/p>\n

\u201cI sat there with the greatest trepidation but absolute enthusiasm and passion for the work,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then I heard this wheezing noise \u2013 the wheezing noise of emphysema. This man walked in. This great man with his oxygen tank. And he sat down. He just looked. And he said, \u2018Too handsome! Too handsome!\u2019 Handsome is as handsome does. It can get in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brosnan has always come across as a nice fellow. But what isn\u2019t so clear until you sit down alone with him is his singular eccentricity. He has always had a habit of drifting off into airy meditations on the role of the performer. As the monologues coil out, the soft Irish vowels take over. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some Celtic genes here that have aligned themselves in this countenance and given me this lovely life of being an actor \u2013 an entertainer,\u201d is something he actually says.<\/p>\n

\n

I left Ireland, 12th of August, 1964. It just happened to be the same day that Ian Fleming passed<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It has been an odd and not always easy life. He is the only son of a carpenter dad and, still with us in her 90s, his indomitable mother, May. His father left the family when Pierce was just a child, and May subsequently went to London to work as a nurse. Raised by aunts, uncles and grandparents, Brosnan eventually travelled, at the age of 12, across the Irish Sea to reunite with Mum and meet her new husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cI left Ireland, 12th of August, 1964,\u201d he says. \u201cIt just happened to be the same day that Ian Fleming passed. I found that out later in life. I was always touched by the curiosity of that. But I remember my first day in Putney, walking down the high street with my mum. I was looking for the big American cars. I was looking for America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brosnan eventually made it there. But it took a leap of faith. He spent a while studying at St Martin\u2019s School of Art \u2013 he still paints \u2013 but eventually answered a nagging urge and took himself to the Drama Centre, in northwest London. I have spoken to other alumni of that institution, and they talk of a tough training in the \u201cmethod school\u201d. The list of graduates is impressive. <\/p>\n

\u201cTom Hardy, Colin Firth, Michael Fassbender, Frances de la Tour, Jack Shepherd. Great people, great actors,\u201d says Brosnan. \u201cSo that\u2019s my job. That\u2019s my work. And you want to stretch yourself as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work seems to have been intermittent after he graduated, in 1975. He had a famous small role as the IRA man who does for Bob Hoskins in the 1980 gangster classic The Long Good Friday. He was in the odd Play for Today, on the BBC. Life properly changed when he was cast in the ABC miniseries The Manions of America. That finally brought Brosnan and his then wife, the Australian actor Cassandra Harris, to southern California. The sleek detective show Remington Steele soon came his way.<\/p>\n

\"RemingtonRemington Steele: Pierce Brosnan with Stephanie Zimbalist <\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to America, I kind of painted myself into a corner with this Mr Smooth, this Mr Sophisticated,\u201d he says. \u201cI tried to be Cary Grant while I was doing Remington Steele. I looked at all his films. I was already a great fan. The director, Bob Butler, said, \u2018We\u2019re doing an old movie. This is an old movie.\u2019 Cary Grant movies move with the speed of light \u2013 the alacrity of the speech. I loved the elegance of clothes. So I leaned into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The route to James Bond was a knotty one. Rumour has it that as far back as 1981, when Cassandra Harris appeared in For Your Eyes Only, Cubby Broccoli, producer of the 007 films, had his eye on Brosnan to eventually succeed Roger Moore.<\/p>\n

When the role became free in 1986, Remington Steele looked to be winding to a close, but, in an awkward irony, the gossip around Brosnan\u2019s possible elevation to 007 revived ratings and the series was renewed, thus eliminating him from Bond consideration. <\/p>\n

It was nearly a decade later, following two films with Timothy Dalton and further hiatus because of rights issues, that Brosnan finally got the part. Goldeneye, in 1995, was followed by three further successful episodes.<\/p>\n

I know Brosnan is sick to death of talking about the state of current Bond, but I am genuinely fascinated to hear his views on Barbara Broccoli, daughter of the late Cubby, handing creative control of the sequence over to Amazon MGM.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I wish them well. Barbara was such a deep part of my life,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think Amazon will drop the ball. I\u2019d like to think they will keep the legacy alive \u2013 and keep the passion for this character and all the emblems that go with the character alive. And also refresh it. Give it a shot in the arm with imagination and creative thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Goldeneye:Goldeneye: Pierce Brosnan played James Bond for the first time in the 1995 film. Photograph: Keith Hamshere\/Getty <\/p>\n

There has always been a fear that playing James Bond can eat up a career. It is certainly true that you will be asked about the imperial thug for the rest of your life. But Sean Connery and Daniel Craig both managed to do other things.<\/p>\n

So has Brosnan. Over the past two decades, since he vacated the position, he has broadened his range. Golden Globe nominated for The Matador, in 2005. As a variation on Tony Blair in The Ghost, from 2010. He was magnificent earlier this year as an intelligence chief in Steven Soderbergh\u2019s Black Bag<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs I say often, it\u2019s the gift that keeps giving,\u201d he says of Bond. \u201cIt has allowed me to traverse the waters of independent films, which I love. I love making independent movies. I love the creative life of being an actor. It\u2019s exciting. It\u2019s exhilarating.\u201d<\/p>\n

He seems to have had no illusions about the brief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was aware of it all, walking into that house all those years ago,\u201d he says. I was aware that the label and the enormity of the character would be forever with me \u2013 and, one hopes, in a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brosnan, who says that if Denis Villeneuve<\/a>, director of the next 007 film, \u201chad something up his sleeve I would look at it in a heartbeat\u201d, now finds himself part of a very different cultural phenomenon. Published in September 2020, The Thursday Murder Club, in which a gaggle of pensioners solve crimes, became a pandemic sensation for its famously lanky author.<\/p>\n

Helen Mirren<\/a>, Ben Kingsley<\/a> and Celia Imrie<\/a> now costar in an agreeable adaptation from the Harry Potter director Chris Columbus<\/a> (whose first big film was Home Alone, and who first directed Brosnan in Mrs Doubtfire). What may surprise some is how directly the film engages with mortality and the wider challenges of ageing.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Thursday Murder Club: Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. Photograph: Giles Keyte\/Netflix <\/p>\n

\u201cIt deals with the day-to-day ailments of diminishing life \u2013 of life dwindling down \u2013 and beautifully so, beautifully so,\u201d says Brosnan. \u201cI think that\u2019s what will capture the audience\u2019s heart. Richard\u2019s storytelling and the characters he creates are so well founded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has Brosnan any wisdom on the business of ageing?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 72 now, and I\u2019m enjoying life enormously,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s an ease to it. There\u2019s a charm to it. There\u2019s a wisdom to it. There\u2019s a patience to it that you have to give to yourself. Mortality is circling the wagons. You know you\u2019re dealing with time. You\u2019re dealing with time past, time present, time future, and just the gift of life and the joy of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is something to still have his mother around at his age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw her at the weekend there,\u201d he says. \u201cI took my son with me, Dylan Thomas. He\u2019s a young film-maker. We went up to see May. She\u2019s 93. She\u2019s still going. She\u2019s still strong, still wonderful. She had the Daily Mail on Saturday, and we were on the cover: Ben, Dame Helen, Celia and myself. I said, \u2018Can I keep this?\u2019 And she said, \u2018No. It\u2019s got my TV guide in there\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PiercePierce Brosnan with his mother, May, in 2016. Photograph: Europa Press via Getty <\/p>\n

Brosnan seems genuinely delighted to have someone from home in the suite at Claridge\u2019s. At one peculiar moment we are interrupted by a chap abseiling down to clean the exterior of the first-floor window. It really is like something from a Bond film. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to talk to my fellow countryman here!\u201d he says in mock anger. \u201cTrying to stitch some answers together that are cohesive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living most of the year in Hawaii with his wife, Keely Shaye Smith \u2013 Cassandra Harris died of cancer in 1991 \u2013 Brosnan now has dual Irish and US citizenship. Is that a juggling act?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an Irishman,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m an Irishman through and through, burnished by a beautiful life as a young man, as an actor, in England, and now in America. America embraced me. I dropped in there in 1982. I found success and …\u201d<\/p>\n

Here he does something peculiar. His voice drops. He sighs deeply. Then he laughs in what sounds like disbelief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m … an … American citizen. Yes, I am. I raised my hand, and they let me in the door. And it hurts my heart to see what\u2019s happening now with the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He means politically?<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, politically and just spiritually, economically \u2013 emotionally for the people. But, you know, as they say, the pendulum swings. One must have hope and faith that we shall come through these challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thursday Murder Club is on Netflix from Thursday, August 28th <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I told friends I\u2019d be talking to Pierce Brosnan, more than one jocularly suggested I should ask…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[14171,14172,14173,14170,18,117,7390,19,17,7391,14169,127,7392,14168],"class_list":{"0":"post-15624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ben-kingsley","9":"tag-celia-imrie","10":"tag-chris-columbus","11":"tag-denis-villeneuve","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-helen-mirren","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-james-bond","18":"tag-john-huston","19":"tag-netflix","20":"tag-pierce-brosnan","21":"tag-richard-osman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}