{"id":104967,"date":"2025-08-29T08:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T08:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/104967\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T08:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T08:08:07","slug":"pierce-brosnan-pink-floyd-were-my-landscape-i-was-a-hippy-pierce-brosnan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/104967\/","title":{"rendered":"Pierce Brosnan: \u2018Pink Floyd were my landscape. I was a hippy\u2019 | Pierce Brosnan"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a weekday morning and I am standing beside Pierce Brosnan<\/a> on a deserted backstreet, watching a woman in a hairnet and white wellies hosing down the entrance to a fishmarket. The former James Bond is in full flow. \u201cYou know the scene in MobLand<\/a> where I\u2019ve got my foot on that guy\u2019s throat and Tom Hardy is shooting the shit out of everyone?\u201d He is talking in his rich, buttery burr about the recent series in which he and Helen Mirren play the heads of an Irish crime family. \u201cWe shot that right here!\u201d He waves at the woman, who silences her hose temporarily. \u201cHi, hello,\u201d he calls out. \u201cI shot a television show here called MobLand.\u201d She smiles back at him. \u201cYes,\u201d she replies sweetly, as though indulging a confused uncle. \u201cNo idea, has she?\u201d he chuckles. The hose springs back to life with a hiss.<\/p>\n

Brosnan, 72, was raised in Navan, County Meath but is now generally to be found at one of his homes in Hawaii or Malibu, and is in London for the release of The Thursday Murder Club<\/a>, the film adaptation of Richard Osman\u2019s cosy crime bestseller. Brosnan teams up with Mirren, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie as retirement-home sleuths whose weekly divertissement solving historical cold cases turns serious when fresh corpses start popping up. Today, he has agreed to a one-off meeting of the Wednesday Nostalgia Club, strolling around the area of north London where he cut his teeth and earned his stripes. \u201cDown the lane of memory,\u201d he says cheerily.<\/p>\n

At the fishmonger\u2019s where Brosnan shot a fight scene in the gangster series MobLand. Photograph: Jamie Salmons\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Our first port of call is Camden Arts Projects<\/a>, the Grade II-listed former Methodist church that was once the site of Drama Centre London. It is now an exhibiton and screening space , but inside Brosnan finds the same stage where he auditioned successfully more than half a century ago. He strides on to it and gazes around the vast white hall, peering up at the empty balconies as though picturing the ghosts of audiences past. \u201cComing here was the making of me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His snowy hair is swept back, and he looks slick and tanned. In 1973, the year of his audition, he cut a very different figure: shoulder-length locks, goatee, earring. When he arrived at theDrama Centre, he already had several years\u2019 experience of experimental theatre at the Ovalhouse theatre, now Brixton House, in Kennington. That spell on the fringes informed his performance in The Thursday Murder Club as \u201cRed\u201d Ron, a former trade unionist. \u201cI recognised Ron because of my days in street theatre and agitprop. Theatre companies performing outside the Ford factory, all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he lacked was formal training. He auditioned first for Webber Douglas, another drama school. \u201cI was so nervous, I fell off the stage. When I got to the Drama Centre, I thought: \u2018Pay attention, Brosnan.\u2019\u201d Armed with a soliloquy from Macbeth, he impressed the centre\u2019s co-founder, Christopher Fettes, who became his teacher and mentor. Fettes, who died last year at 94, once said it was \u201cshocking\u201d that Brosnan left the stage behind for cinema. Then again, he also considered James Bond to be \u201ca bit below\u201d Brosnan\u2019s talents.<\/p>\n

\u2018Broody Brosnan\u2019 \u2026 Circa 1978, shortly after Tennessee Williams boosted him from understudy to a role in The Red Devil Battery Sign at the Roundhouse. Photograph: Jeremy Fletcher\/Redferns<\/p>\n

The actor concedes the first point. \u201cChristopher wanted me doing obscure 19th-century plays, but my dream was always movies.\u201d Daniel Craig, Brosnan\u2019s immediate successor as 007, made a point of returning to theatre. \u201cI was impressed that Daniel had the bottle to go back out there. I thought, \u2018Why the heck didn\u2019t I?\u2019 You have to really want it, and I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was Fettes right about Bond being beneath him? \u201cIt\u2019s very kind of Christopher. But thank God for Bond. It\u2019s given me longevity. It\u2019s given me the world in many respects.\u201d As if to prove his point, he steps outside into the morning light and dons his spiffy Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses. \u201cI didn\u2019t pay for these. They were free. My son said: \u2018Oh my God, Dad. They start at 700 bucks.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On opening night, he sent me a telegram: \u2018Thank God for you, my dear boy. Love, Tennessee Williams<\/p>\n

Brosnan played Bond four times, beginning with the impressive GoldenEye in 1995<\/a> and ending seven years later with the risible Die Another Day<\/a>. He had a unique challenge: his incarnation was the first to be asked to reckon with the chauvinistic sins of Bonds gone by. He had to uphold the character\u2019s heroism in between occasional bites of humble pie.<\/p>\n

Bond had figured in Brosnan\u2019s life here and there before he got to play him. There was a cinema trip with his stepfather to see Goldfinger at the ABC Putney in September 1964. The previous month, 11-year-old Brosnan was reunited with his mother after living with relatives in Ireland while she completed her nursing training in London<\/a>. \u201cI later discovered that Ian Fleming died in August, the same month I got here.\u201d He raises both eyebrows in a manner that wouldn\u2019t have disgraced Roger Moore. When Moore vacated the role in the late 1980s, it was Brosnan\u2019s for the taking. Except the network behind his US television hit Remington Steele, in which he was charming as a conman turned detective, refused to release him from his contract. His loss was Timothy Dalton\u2019s gain, at least for a few years.<\/p>\n

Our next stop is the Roundhouse, the live music venue and former theatre where Brosnan starred in the British premiere of Tennessee Williams\u2019 The Red Devil Battery Sign in June 1977. The playwright personally promoted Brosnan, originally an understudy, to the main cast. \u201cOn opening night, he sent me a telegram: \u2018Thank God for you, my dear boy. Love, Tennessee Williams.\u2019\u201d It must have made up for having his name misspelt on the posters as \u201cPierce Brosman\u201d, I suggest. He responds with a rueful laugh.<\/p>\n

Time out in Camden en route to the Roundhouse. Photograph: Jamie Salmons\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The security guard at the Roundhouse looks unfazed when I tell him who I have with me, but permits us to nose around anyway. \u201cI remember finishing the show one night and bumping into Tennessee,\u201d says Brosnan as we loiter in the foyer. \u201cHe couldn\u2019t find his way out of the theatre, so he held my arm and I walked him to his driver.\u201d Williams died six years later at 71. \u201cWell, he liked a tipple. You would go to his house at night and everyone would be at his feet while he regaled us with these lyrical stories.\u201d A pause. \u201cNone of which I can recall because I was tippling, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Red Devil Battery Sign opened exactly a week after the release of the Sex Pistols\u2019 God Save the Queen. \u201cPunk wasn\u2019t my bailiwick,\u201d he says. \u201cPink Floyd were part of my landscape of learning and transformation. I was a hippy.\u201d Around his neck is a string of beads which may or may not be the ones given to him by a monk 15 years ago during a nasty bit of turbulence on a private plane.<\/p>\n

To finish our conversation, we head to a pavement cafe in nearby Primrose Hill, where Brosnan admires the dogs trotting by. This prompts a brief reverie on his favourite Instagram video. \u201cIt\u2019s a guy who dresses his dog in a hoodie and then puts his own hands through the sleeves, so it looks like the dog has hands.\u201d He sips his latte. \u201cIt\u2019s really quite brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

A scene from The Thursday Murder Club, from left: Celia Imrie, Helen Mirren, Naomi Ackie, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n

We get back to the topic of The Thursday Murder Club. Brosnan still isn\u2019t sure why Chris Columbus, who directed him in Mrs Doubtfire and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, thought of him for Ron. \u201cChris just said: \u2018Grow a beard.\u2019 So I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Columbus isn\u2019t the only blast from Brosnan\u2019s past in the new movie. Decades before MobLand, he and Mirren appeared in The Long Good Friday<\/a>, though they didn\u2019t share any scenes. Whereas Brosnan and Paul Freeman, who stars in The Thursday Murder Club as a vet whose wife is dying, have got \u201cprevious\u201d \u2013 as the East End hoods of that 1980 thriller would put it. \u201cIt was my first film,\u201d Brosnan sighs. \u201cI wasn\u2019t given a script. My agent said: \u2018Get down to Lewisham bath and take your trunks.\u2019 And there was Paul.\u201d The Thursday Murder Club brings them together for the first time since Brosnan had the temerity to stab Freeman to death in the swimming baths. It also puts Brosnan back in his trunks again for a water aerobics workout to Disco Inferno. \u201cSome people think I give one of my best performances in The Long Good Friday,\u201d he muses. Because he doesn\u2019t have any lines? \u201cExactly! Don\u2019t give me any lines. Just tell me: look camera left, look camera right.\u201d And brood. \u201cYes. That\u2019s me. Broody Brosnan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brosnan in full flight as James Bond in Die Another Day, 2002. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Possibly Brosnan\u2019s smartest moves during his Bond tenure were to make canny choices between 007 films. He had his head detached from his body in Mars Attacks! and kissed Sarah Jessica Parker, who had had hers attached to a chihuahua. Then he flashed his bum and got doused in champagne by Rene Russo in the smart, snazzy remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, and was gleefully untrustworthy as a crooked MI6 agent in The Tailor of Panama. (The late Observer film critic Philip French considered Brosnan<\/a> \u201cbetter at coarse, sleazy charm than suave sophistication\u201d.) This meant he had less baggage to shake off after Die Another Day. The world already knew he was more than just a walking tuxedo. Very clever, Mr Bond.<\/p>\n

In fact, it\u2019s one of Brosnan\u2019s tips for whoever plays the role next. \u201cIt\u2019s essential to be creative outside of Bond,\u201d he says. Any other advice? \u201cGet a good lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

His eclecticism has continued, whether it means painting his toenails as a gone-to-seed hitman in The Matador, belting his lungs out in Mamma Mia! or returning to the intelligence agencies, as boss rather than foot-soldier in Steven Soderbergh\u2019s witty thriller Black Bag, in which he barked at Michael Fassbender and sparked with Cate Blanchett.<\/p>\n

Last stop of the day at a cafe in Primrose Hill. Photograph: Jamie Salmons\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Talking of which, wasn\u2019t Blanchett astonishing, he says, in the recent production of The Seagull at the Barbican? \u201cI was bedazzled! The friend I was with said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to go round and congratulate her. She\u2019ll know you\u2019re in.\u2019 So we joined the queue. Barricades, the lot. The guy on the door said: \u2018Are you on the list?\u2019 My friend said: \u2018This is Pierce Brosnan!\u2019 There were tourists snapping away, taking my picture. \u2018Sorry, mate. Not on the list. Can\u2019t come in.\u2019 My friend was getting indignant. I said: \u2018Walk away.\u2019 I sent Cate a note instead. She was mortified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Security guards and fishmongers alike may not recognise him. But once Brosnan has been whisked off to his next appointment, a family of American tourists call out to me as I\u2019m paying the bill: \u201cWas that Pierce Brosnan? Wow!\u201d Proof that his star hasn\u2019t dimmed. If only he\u2019d been there to get the benefit.<\/p>\n

The Thursday Murder Club is streaming on Netflix<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a weekday morning and I am standing beside Pierce Brosnan on a deserted backstreet, watching a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-104967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}