{"id":229524,"date":"2026-01-09T18:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T18:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/229524\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T18:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T18:21:09","slug":"pierce-brosnan-and-amir-el-masry-on-their-prince-naseem-biopic-giant-i-hope-it-inspires-some-lads-and-lasses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/229524\/","title":{"rendered":"Pierce Brosnan and Amir El-Masry on their Prince Naseem biopic Giant: \u2018I hope it inspires some lads and lasses\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pierce Brosnan<\/a> has what grandmothers might call a \u201ctwinkle\u201d. Or at least the kind of face that would make cartoon animals hit themselves with enormous mallets while their eyes bulge out of their heads. And he knows this. Obviously. You don\u2019t play James Bond<\/a> and get voted the Sexiest Man Alive at the relatively late age of 48 without cottoning on. And you can also tell because when I ask Brosnan about being a famously very good-looking dude, he barely blinks. There\u2019s no faux modesty. No admonishing. Just a sharp nod of recognition. Water is wet. Climate change is real. Pierce Brosnan \u2013 then, now, and tomorrow \u2013 looks absolutely fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taught in drama school to transform,\u201d he explains, when I ask whether he\u2019d ever wanted to not be so famously good-looking. \u201cBut then I went to America and had too good a time playing myself. Or trying to play myself, which is not an easy thing to do. And I had responsibilities as a man, as a father, and I found employment easily.\u201d Just think of the hits<\/a>: Remington Steele; Mrs Doubtfire; the second-best volcano disaster movie of 1997, Dante\u2019s Peak. \u201cSometimes I made choices that I shouldn\u2019t have made. I was dealing with the self, and that image of the self. But as I\u2019ve gotten older, it\u2019s free reign.\u201d <\/p>\n

We\u2019re here, alongside the British actor Amir El-Masry, to talk Giant, a spiky yet inspirational biopic of the spiky yet inspirational boxer Naseem Hamed, aka Prince Naseem<\/a>. El-Masry is a cocky, swaggering Hamed and Brosnan plays his trainer, a by-all-accounts gentle and compassionate Irishman named Brendan Ingle. The actor donned a prosthetic nose and hairpiece for the role, spending hours in the makeup chair each morning de-Brosnaning himself. It\u2019s resulted in arguably his most sensitive and thoughtful performance in years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a delight to shake off that image that you might have created,\u201d the 72-year-old explains. \u201cOr that corner that you\u2019ve painted yourself into. It was fun to create that image, but it\u2019s also fun to uncreate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone with memories of the Nineties will remember Prince Naseem, a boxing<\/a> superstar, a working class Muslim kid from Sheffield done good, and a man as difficult as he was spellbinding. Over the course of his career he landed 31 knockout blows, and lost just one of his 36 professional fights. He was also a brilliant showman: he once entered the ring on a flying carpet, because why not? \u201cHe was one of my heroes growing up,\u201d says the 35-year-old El-Masry, an actor perhaps best known for his role as the secretly raucous hedge funder Usman on Industry. \u201cTo see someone like that be a world champion was incredibly inspiring. He was an exceptional role model.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have a great wife, who\u2019s given me wings to fly. I\u2019m a Catholic, and my faith is very strong. And you have to be as tough as old boots to be in the game this long<\/p>\n

Pierce Brosnan<\/p>\n

To its credit, Giant explores the thin line between confidence and arrogance, with Ingle instilling incredible self-belief in a young sportsman, then being alienated by his increasing volatility. El-Masry says he understands the importance of confidence, but also where someone can get lost in it. In acting, he says, \u201cyou need to have a thick skin, but also know the reasons you\u2019re in it \u2013 you need to have a love of the craft, and not any ulterior motive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brosnan says that his own self-belief has ebbed and flowed over the years. \u201cIt\u2019s such a capricious game to be an actor. That black dog of doubt sits beside you, but it\u2019s also what spurs you on. You\u2019re constantly constructing yourself and then destroying yourself, in the best possible way.\u201d Where does he get his self-belief? \u201cFamily, for sure,\u201d he says. \u201cI have a great wife, who\u2019s given me wings to fly. I\u2019m a Catholic, and my faith is very strong. And you have to be as tough as old boots to be in the game this long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brosnan is dressed in a checked jacket over a black turtleneck, with a gold watch on his wrist. He commands the hotel suite we\u2019re in \u2013 everyone here seems to cleave inwards to him, from El-Masry (relaxed in a leather jacket and jeans), to the various film publicists dotted about the room. It\u2019s mainly that voice of his that does it. It burrs and purrs and grips you \u2013 I\u2019m sure he could add gravitas to a train station announcement.<\/p>\n

\"Pierce<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Pierce Brosnan and Amir El-Masry as Brendan Ingle and Prince Naseem in the boxing biopic \u2018Giant\u2019 (Sam Talor)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very magnetic,\u201d El-Masry laughs. \u201cThere are very few actors who I can say are role models not just because of acting, but because of how they carry themselves. Pierce carries himself as a man who knows where his values and morals are.\u201d On the Giant set, El-Masry dislocated his finger while preparing for a scene, and Brosnan immediately rushed over and ordered a short delay on filming. \u201cHe was like, \u2018forget everything \u2013 health is wealth.\u2019 He has his priorities straight, because you always worry in situations like that if production is going to be upset with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingle and Hamed were linked by their experiences as outsiders in the Sheffield of the Eighties \u2013 Ingle as an Irish immigrant, and Hamed as a Yemeni Muslim \u2013 and Brosnan and El-Masry say their own struggles somewhat mirror those of both men.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, I thought I could be anything and do anything,\u201d El-Masry says. He was raised in Acton, London, to an Egyptian family, and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before finding work in films such as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and series like The Crown (where he played Mohamed Al-Fayed). \u201cBut then the industry quickly tells you who you are and they box you in. You\u2019re always thinking, how do I get out of that box? And it\u2019s not just race, but religion, and even how you carry yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaseem and Brendan were two men who burned with a deep passion,\u201d Brosnan adds, \u201cand who knew what it was like to be kicked to the curb by society.\u201d Brosnan was raised predominantly in Navan, County Neath, by his grandparents, his mother having left for London to work as a nurse. Brosnan\u2019s father had walked out on them when he was an infant, and it wasn\u2019t until Brosnan was 11 that he joined his mother in London to start life anew. It was a difficult transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a boy coming from the fields and the banks of the River Boyne and trying to assimilate,\u201d he remembers. \u201cAnd having to navigate this new land.\u201d He found shades of his background in some of Ingle\u2019s speeches in the film, which talk about hatred, prejudice and the feelings of being isolated. \u201cAnd I saw myself in Naseem, too \u2013 this young lad with so much ambition, who\u2019s trying to make his place in the world, but also aware that he\u2019s stepping into the lion\u2019s den.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Brosnan,<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Brosnan, El-Masry and the real-life \u2018Prince\u2019 Naseem Hamad at the \u2018Giant\u2019 premiere this week (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Where the parallels stop for both men, though, is when it comes to thoughts of retirement. As is traditional for many sportsmen, Hamed retired early \u2013 at the age of 28. \u201cIt\u2019s different for athletes, and Naz had his own reasons for doing that, and I can\u2019t fault the man,\u201d El-Masry says. \u201cBut to retire from acting at 28, to me, just means you don\u2019t love what it is that you\u2019re doing. I know for sure that I\u2019ve not got everything out of acting that I need to get out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brosnan nods. \u201cIt\u2019s the creative life that keeps me alive,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m 72, time is moving on for me, and I can feel the tick of it. I\u2019ve been down this path a long way now. But what else do I do but really live the life and the time that I have left?\u201d <\/p>\n

He hopes Giant instills the same values in young audiences. \u201cI think the story of Naz and Brendan teaches us to have courage and belief in yourself,\u201d he says. \u201cWith a good heart, good mind, good passion and good discipline, you can do anything you choose to do. I was lucky to start my life as an actor in community theatre in Brixton, south London. And once I found that, I found a home, and great strength. I\u2019m hoping Giant will inspire some lads and lasses, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Giant\u2019 is in cinemas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-229524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}