Matador Q&A with Pierce Brosnan

THE MATADOR
Q&A with PIERCE BROSNAN
Continued from page 1

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Looking back, would you change anything?

No. I look back but I have been blessed. I came to this country 23 years ago on a wing and a prayer - Freddie Laker, sandwiches at the back of the bus - so I got a job, a TV show. I was looking to work with Martin Scorsese and I got a TV show, beggars can’t be choosers, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth - whatever you want to say - it’s work. Relish it, enjoy it, get on with it.

What about Topkapi?

That is THOMAS CROWN 2 and we have taken The Topkapi Affair off the shelf. It is a heist movie much loved by movie buffs and we are using that as a blueprint but only in the first act and then we have embellished on it. It is a different theft, different heist, different woman but about a love affair. So we are trying...we are noodling it along. I enjoy producing and bringing people together and to have something like THE MATADOR and Richard this wonderful text and Hope Davis and Greg Kinnear...they worked beautifully together. We surrounded this young director Richard with the best people possible.

What is your favourite scene in the movie?

There are so many. I love walking away from the Porsche and it blowing up. It was the first day’s work on a Sunday. The first scene was with the little boy and the second scene was with the Porsche. There we were making our movie in a residential neighbourhood, we had one Porsche body of a car and we had this huge explosion. We had children in the scene and we were all hoping it would be ok. I had to walk away and as the camera followed me it had to blow at the right time. And we only had one take. So that was great.

What about the hotel reception scene?

The walking across the lobby! Loved it. It was funny. I wasn’t embarrassed. I have been an actor since I was 18 years of age I have done crazy stuff before I ever came to this country. You wouldn’t believe it. You should have seen me in Puckaree an Irish rock musical at the Edinburgh Festival in my wonderful rubber phallus running around the stage. That was a good one!

In real life do you prefer margaritas or beer or whisky?

I like a beer. I did have a few whiskies filming out in Santa Fe because it is so bloody cold out there.

Have you ever had the same relationships with women as Julian Noble has? Have you ever felt like using women the way he does?

No! God almighty, I have been a married man most of my life. That’s the way I like it. I get to go home to the most beautiful woman on the planet...lovely children and have a good, normal life and then I get to run off and play in the movies and do fantasy world.

Who are you more like, Danny or Julian?

Danny. I don’t know the Julians of this world. I like to have a good normal life and good times. I wasn’t quite sure how to get into the world of Julian so I asked a friend of mine at the LA PD if he knew a criminal psychologist that I could speak to. I gave her the script and she did a breakdown on this psychopath. These men do exist, they are out in our society, they kill for money.

Were roles like THE MATADOR not offered to you earlier in your career...maybe because you are a fantastic looking man?

If someone else had been doing this movie I don’t think I would have been given the role. You kind of find yourself painted into a corner by your own personality, the choice you’ve made in playing the Bond role and underpinning that with Thomas Crown, which was deliberate conscious decision on my part to capitalise of such a ‘international persona’. In having your own company you get material and I think the business has changed now. If any actor has work and passion about it and they are not getting the work then it is up to them to create the work for themselves.

Were you underestimated in your ability as an actor?

There is a certain awareness in myself that I was not getting the right roles, the meaty roles, the performance roles, the acting roles. Because I was either too handsome, too pretty, too this...whatever...being judged in ways that left you nowhere to go. So this was just the right time. You have to be patient sometimes, or you have to force the issue and demand it. To the people that I work with I have said...now’s the time, let’s see what the actor is made of, let’s see what talent you do have to transform to create a performance.

Question & Answer Copyright Buena Visa International

The Matador – movie information
PHASE9 movie review
Q&A with Pierce Brosnan and producer Beau St Clair in London
Q&A with Greg Kinnear in New York
Q&A with Hope Davis in New York

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