Pierce Brosnan Rewatches GoldenEye, Mamma Mia, Mrs. Doubtfire & More

Vanity Fair

"It's very hard to talk about Bond, it's best left unsaid." "No laughing in the back." Pierce Brosnan takes a walk down memory lane as he rewatches scenes from his classic works including 'GoldenEye,' 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' 'Remington Steele,' 'The Thomas Crown Affair,' 'Mamma Mia,' 'The Matador,' 'Mobland' and more.   MobLand premieres March 30 on Paramount+ with new episodes releasing weekly through the first weekend of June.  Director: Adam Lance Garcia Director of Photography: Jack Belisle Editor: Daniel Hurwitz Talent: Pierce Brosnan Producer: Madison Coffey Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors Associate Producer: Zayna Allen Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes Talent Booker: Mica Medoff Camera Operator: Lucas Young Gaffer: Vincent Cota Audio Engineer: Sean Paulsen Production Assistant: Ashley Vidal, Karla Torres Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Stella Shortino Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo Additional Editor: Daniel Berlin Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds

Transcript

00:00When it comes

00:02Though I try, how can I carry on?

00:07Oh dear, oh dear.

00:09I've got a platinum album for that.

00:11I've got a gold album for that.

00:13So, no laughing in the back there.

00:16Hi, I'm Pierce Brosnan,

00:18and I'd like to share with you some of the scenes from my work over the years.

00:23So, sit back, make a cup of tea, get a cocktail, whatever you like,

00:27grab your loved one, and let's go.

00:30The car sequence, it was a vintage Aston Martin.

00:35Outside the casino there in Monte Carlo.

00:38And, uh...

00:40The car sequence, it was a vintage Aston Martin outside the casino there in Monte Carlo.

00:50And, uh...

00:53It was the last scene of the night.

00:56And I drove up.

00:58And they said, do you want to drive it back?

00:59I said, no, I'll drive it back.

01:00So, we did this about five or six times.

01:02And then I could smell this burning rubber.

01:05I'd left the handbrake on.

01:06The guy who owned the car was in the crowd,

01:09admiring his beautiful vehicle,

01:11which I promptly walked away from.

01:12And that was the night.

01:13Thank you, mister.

01:14The name's Bond.

01:15James Bond.

01:16Well, Connery, you can see it as a new guy,

01:18but he can see it as a new guy.

01:19And this is the last scene of the night.

01:20It was the last scene of the night.

01:22And I drove up.

01:23And they said, do you want to drive it back?

01:24I said, no, I'll drive it back.

01:25So, we did this about five or six times.

01:27And then I could smell this burning rubber.

01:30Mr. The name's Bond. James Bond. Well Connery and Moore I let in. You know the first movie I saw

01:38back in 1964 when I left Ireland as a young lad of 11 years of age was Goldfinger. Well Putney

01:45High Street. Little did I think I was ever going to be James Bond. So I allowed myself when I was

01:51working on GoldenEye to take from Connery to take from Moore and somewhere in the middle try and

01:57find my own space and my own sense of reality and belief and sincerity that I could play the part.

02:08It's such a challenge because you really deal with yourself when you play this part.

02:12Casino Royale is really the blueprint for the character. Fleming didn't really give

02:19you much insight into who Bond was. So you know you read the books, you read the

02:27script, you focus on the script and you try to be the man. It's kind of as simple as that and as

02:36complicated as that without going into too much embroidery of the psychological makings of the

02:42fellow. It appears we share the same passions. Three anyway. I can't too. I think you're dealing with

02:50someone who's constantly dealing with fear and that sense of death and dying and someone who also

02:59loves life and loves being that man. It's very hard to talk about Bond. It's best left unsaid.

03:09That's a pretty impressive bobble you got her. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

03:21The fellow gives a gift like that. He wants more than a piece of her heart, eh? Bit of a going down payment, huh?

03:28Excuse me? Oh, you know, dear. Sink the sub. Hide the weasel. Park the porpoise. Bit of the old Humpty Dumpty.

03:36Oh, my God. I mean, there's reams of footage of me just kind of falling around on the floor with laughter.

03:48And he went really blue. I mean, he really was quite colorful because the children weren't there and it was just Robin and myself

03:57and they knew he had me in the crosshairs with his humor. I love the man. And I really never worked with Robin Williams.

04:04I only worked with Mrs. Doubtfire. I mean, the very first day that I was on set up in San Francisco, they said,

04:10do you want to meet Robin? I said, yeah, I'd love to meet him. And I went into the makeup trailer and Robin was sitting there in a Hawaiian shirt

04:16and his kind of hairy arms hanging out and his hairy legs. But he had the head of Mrs. Doubtfire.

04:22So he said, oh, Pierce. Oh, you're so handsome. Come here. Give us a kiss. Hey there, baby. What's happening?

04:29He jumped all over the place. He was, he was, you know, such a kind hearted man as well. He was such a beautiful soul.

04:40And no one made me laugh quite like Robin Williams did.

04:44Just one moment. Carpe dentum. Seize the teeth.

04:48Let me assist you. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. A spoon. Oh, how clever.

04:51How clever. Wait, I've got, wait, I've got, there, there, there. Make a pincer. Come at it from both sides.

04:57There you go, darling. That's it. There we go.

04:59The job came at a very, very good time in my career. I was a single father, children to take care of in a home, mortgage to pay,

05:07and the job was just pure heaven, pure heaven, pure joy.

05:11Help along the way.

05:13Stop.

05:14Stop.

05:15Hold on.

05:16Stop.

05:17Stop.

05:18Stop.

05:19It's totally suggestive. I mean, he's like, just, yeah, it speaks volumes.

05:27No acting required, really. None whatsoever.

05:30Robin was a very, very muscular fellow, and, you know, I'm six foot two. At least I was then.

05:37And so we spent a good week in that restaurant, filming it, and a good chunk of change.

05:44Him manhandling me, trying to cough up a shrimp. A fabulous sequence.

05:50Oh, the gentleman wishes to buy you a drink.

06:00Remington Steele. Dropped into L.A. back in 1982. I got a job. I went for my first interview,

06:08drove across Laurel Canyon in a lime green pacer. The car blew up, and I walked down the hill

06:15to my first audition, and it was an interview. It was called Remington Steele. I got the job.

06:20I had a mountain of black hair there, back in the day. I was as skinny as a whippet,

06:25and I thought I was Cary Grant. Bob Butler, who directed the show, he said, we're making an old movie,

06:32and I loved Cary Grant movies, so I immersed myself in the world of Cary Grant, and I was coming

06:37from England, and I'd been in a lot of theater, done a lot of stage work, so my alacrity of speech

06:44was much sharper than it is now. Stephanie Zimlist. Stephanie, beautiful Stephanie Zimlist.

06:49I used to watch her father in 77's Sunset Strip, and now here I was working with this

06:55beautiful young woman, and yeah, it's a deeply meaningful series for me because it launched

07:03my career, and it launched my career in America, brought me to the public's attention.

07:08You always do things on such a grand scale, Mr. Pearson. Only when I'm aroused.

07:13Well, I don't really like looking at myself or hearing myself speak. Don't play it again,

07:19just let's play a bit more. I always loved excitement, so I studied and apprenticed, and

07:25eventually joined a large detective agency. And did it fulfill your fantasies? Look how good

07:30she is, Stephanie. She has such a clarity of speech. I tried to be Remington Steele. I mean,

07:38the lovely thing about Remington was you didn't know where he came from. He was an enigma, so that

07:42gave me a lot of leeway to play, and have a great time with Stephanie. I loved her. Remington loved Laura,

07:52and Laura loved Remington. And were they ever going to come together? That was the tease. And he wanted

07:59to just get her in the sack at the end of every episode, and it never really happened. But it had

08:04an innocence to it. It was a theme of the thin man, heart to heart. We liked each other. We had a kind

08:12of our own power struggle within doing the show. Stephanie was very well established. I was the unknown

08:18actor, so to speak. Tell me, Ms. Holt, how did you become a dick? I beg your pardon? Isn't that what

08:26you Americans call a private detective? In creating Remington Steele and that style of performance,

08:33suit acting, suits always look good on me. I love clothes. I love fashion. I love beautiful aspects of

08:42life. So from Remington, I kind of launched myself into that style of performance. Leading man,

08:51wanted to do movies. But I was so, I was so stamped by the character, it took me a while to break away

08:59from it. And I don't think I ever really did break away from it. But it allowed me, it was the stepping

09:04stone to bomb. Oh, I see I got the air back on. I shouldn't have checked my coat.

09:19Thank you. You know, if I had my pick in this room, I wouldn't have taken the Monet. It's very hard

09:27to describe how you create chemistry. You like someone, you really enjoy them, you admire them,

09:33you adore them, you respect them. And then you have a great sense of play. And

09:41Renée is as light as a feather in her beauty and her sense of humor. And again, she was easy to

09:51to fall in love with as the character. When Beaumarie St. Clair, my producing partner and I hit on the

09:56idea and the studio said yes to it, it was an exhilarating moment. And then you have to

10:03come to play the part. For me, it was a story, it was a love story about a man who had everything in

10:09his life. Everything was at his fingertips, but he didn't have love. There was, there was a hole in

10:14his heart. And then out of left field, you know, comes this gorgeous woman who is on his case. So for me,

10:24it was, it was, it was, it was the love story. But then of course, you know, John McTiernan,

10:29I'd worked with John, made his first movie, Nomads. He was out of the AFI. And it's a psychological

10:37thriller, Leslie Ann Down and myself. That was Nomads. And I thought that was, that was during my days as

10:46Remington Steele. And I thought this is the start of my film career, but it wasn't meant to be.

10:51John McTiernan, you know, took off and became John after that with the Die Hard movies and Predator.

10:59And then of course, the years go by and I come to him with the gift of the Thomas Crown Affair.

11:08You? You like to have that? Why? Will you get it for me? Anything's obtainable.

11:20I love art. I'm a painter. So I wanted to hit the Met. And I really fought for the story to be in New York.

11:28They tried for LA, but I didn't want to do that. I just loved the city, New York. And it just added

11:35to the grandeur of the piece. Okay, I'll bite. What would you do to get it?

11:40I'd buy a print. Well, Steve was so cool. He was such a, he did so little on camera and he did so much.

11:52So it was the inner life of him. And he had such an ease of physicality with his own body

11:59and sensuality. And how do you play cool?

12:03You just can't. It's just, it's an impossible thing to do. You have to be sincere. You have to

12:11be comfortable in your own skin. Keep it as simple as possible.

12:15I see you kept my bagpipes.

12:28They're supposed to ward off unwanted visitors.

12:36Oh, you don't need bagpipes to do that.

12:39Mamma Mia came to me one winter's evening. My stepfather had just passed away.

12:45And I was over at my mom's house and it was just her and I and the, the, the Undertaker.

12:53My stepfather's name was Carmichael, Bill Carmichael, William Carmichael.

12:58Lovely man, a really kind man to me. So he was a Scotsman too. And I said to my mom,

13:06I said, oh, we have to have the bagpipes. We should get a piper to take him and send him off on his way.

13:13And we're sitting there and there was just the three of us. I said, I'm going to go outside

13:17for a cigarette. I was out there and my agent called me and said, you've got a job

13:23with Meryl Streep. And I thought, oh my heavens, that this is, this is magnificent.

13:29This is incredible. Meryl Streep, they're really taking me seriously. And he said, yeah, it's Mamma Mia.

13:35I said, what? Mamma Mia, the musical? He said, yeah. I said, great. Where is it?

13:43How much? And it was Greece. My agent said, look, you have to stay in London and see the show.

13:50So two days later, I went to see the show, Mamma Mia. And I sat there with my late

13:57stepdaughter, Charlotte, and my son, Christopher, and watching the play. And I thought, oh my god,

14:05what have I said yes to? Well, it's this crazy musical. Mamma Mia. And I kept on thinking,

14:13Meryl. Meryl is in it. Meryl Streep is in it. It's okay. Hold steady. And then Charlotte said to me,

14:18Daddy, who are you playing? Which dad are you playing? I said, I don't know. I forgot to ask.

14:23The gay dad. I could play the gay dad. Yeah, I can do that. Or the butch dad. Yeah, I can do that.

14:29And then in came Sam Carmichael, the handsome one. And I said, that looks like it's got my name on it.

14:37And I was. I was Sam Carmichael. So here we are watching the play. And my stepdad had just buried

14:45Carmichael. And then in the play, the character Sam Carmichael says to Donna, oh, you've still got my

14:53bagpipes. And so someone was looking after me up there. And then when we made the movie,

15:00I got the prop department to put the Carmichael tartan on the bagpipes.

15:06Where are those happy days? They seem so hard to find.

15:13I tried to read through you, but you have closed your mind.

15:18This is a warhorse of a song. It's it really is. It's not an easy song to sing. And I was mildly

15:27terrified. I remember going up to air studios to record the songs. And the only thing that kind of

15:35gave me some solace and some peace was to see Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård look as equally freaked

15:43out as I was, as we kind of sat down with Benny and Bjorn and went straight into recording the songs.

15:51So you record the songs and then you sing back to the track. But you have to sing, because you have

15:57to see the effort and the vocal chords. And you have to act the song out. But the musical director,

16:04he would stand right beside the camera to count me in because I could never really count in. I was no

16:09good. One, two, three, four. And he'd be there. One, two, three, four. One, two. So I'd be watching him.

16:16So I think you can actually see me look to the side of the camera at some point.

16:20Oh dear, oh dear. I got a platinum album for that. I got a gold album for that. So no laughing in the

16:38back there. I'm watching you.

16:46About two months ago, I had this job in Manila. Now normally, this would make me happy. I like the

16:54hot climate. The guys look like chicks. It's fucking fantastic. The thing was, I was burned out.

17:01I didn't know it. I didn't even know what burned out meant at the time. But I was. I was a classic

17:07textbook case. You know, this character is so messed up. And it's such dark humor. Richard

17:13Shepard sent it to us, my late producing partner, Bill Marie St. Clair, as a writing sample. We were

17:20at that time trying to do the Thomas Crown Affair Part Two. But Richard Shepard sent us

17:27this, this wonderful character, Julian. The costume was played a big part of it.

17:36Cat, who was the costume designer, got these kind of dreadful orange color. There was a dreadful

17:44orange colored jacket, I remember. The chain became something that those guys wear.

17:50Richard Shepard wanted a mustache. So I grew a mustache because he thought that was a kind of

17:55rather kinky, strange look. In doing so, I dismantled some of the image that I'd created with

18:02Remington Steele and James Bond as well. So you're always looking to try and be an unexpected surprise.

18:10Sometimes you play the same part over and over and over again until you're sick of yourself.

18:16And you have to then find the material to break away from that corner you've painted yourself into.

18:25I was having panic attacks. I was completely losing control of myself.

18:28I tried to counter this with booze, of course, but nothing was working. I drank and drank and

18:36nothing. It was very easy to play. Once I surrendered to playing Julian, and then I had,

18:44you know, Greg Kinnear. I mean, Greg Kinnear is such a great scene partner to be opposite,

18:49and he gave me the character. The more perverse and the more outlandish I got, the funnier it got up

18:56against his stoic, deer-in-the-headlights character. So much of my work is sensing and intuition.

19:06You have some image of the character, you have some sensation, a voice, a piece of clothing maybe.

19:13I've moved on to my other usual diversions. A wonderful little whorehouse I knew right off at

19:19Modbini Street.

19:23Oh dear, this always makes me laugh. Smacking on the derrier.

19:31What can I say? It was Mexico City. It was Greg Kinnear, and it was this wild, wild, crazy character.

19:43Where have you been? Comforting, Eddie. Oh, Jesus. He needs love and understanding. He's a true

19:54Harrigan. He'll make a great man one day, you'll see. That little fucking Torag, he's a liability.

20:00That's what he is. He's a fucking liability. Don't you try to stare me down, you poxy little car.

20:05Well, it was the accent. That's what gave me the character of Conrad Harrigan. And you know,

20:13I'd spoken to Guy. The job came to me last summer, five episodes. I read them. I loved the work of

20:20Guy Ritchie. I said yes. I jumped in straight away. And it was, you know, North London, South London,

20:26family, Irish background. But I had in my head, you know, a South London accent or a North London,

20:34not really specific. And I started talking to Guy on the phone. And he said, listen,

20:39don't worry about it. Okay, we'll sort it out on the day. 15 minutes, put it out of your mind.

20:44I said, I just want to clarify 15 minutes, put it out of my mind. We'll sort it out on the day.

20:49And he said, yeah, don't worry about it. Of course, I did worry about it. And I tried to think,

20:54what part of London would he come from? And then five weeks later, I'm on the set,

20:59first day of shooting, Tom Hardy, myself, and Guy. And Guy said, go more Irish, more Irish.

21:07Now, my Irish accent is a very soft Irish accent, and it's faded in the midst of time, really.

21:15So I called my, with about 15 minutes to go before the very first take, I called my

21:21dialect coach up, good friend, Brendan Gunn. I said, Brendan, I need a Kerry accent.

21:29Brosnan is a Kerry name. The old man, Tom Brosnan, God bless him. He was from Kerry. And that's how

21:36Conrad was born. You have no idea who Eddie Harrigan is. You can't see it. None of you can.

21:44I can. Ellen has cut such a fine crystal specific line of attack with her performance, her speech,

21:59her articulation of speech, her focus is so intense. And you, she gives you so much that she makes you

22:10real. And like everyone in this, in this mob land, it's a wonderful ensemble of actors.

22:17And we didn't discuss things. We didn't go into great depths of our motivation.

22:24You study the scene, you study the script, as you do. And that's where, that's where your work is.

22:31Study, study, study, read the text, read the text. And slowly he comes to you and you bring yourself

22:39to the character. And then you go to work the next day, you rehearse it, block it, shoot it.

22:51As they say in the movies, that's it, folks. That's all we got.

22:55All right. Enjoy the night. Good night. Good day. Ciao.

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