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By Woodrow J. Hinton
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Pierce Brosnan suffered cuts and bruises from six
months of sword fencing during the production of Die
Another Day, his fourth outing as James Bond.
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There is no better boost to a man's ego than to shake James Bond's hand and make him flinch. I know because when I recently grasped actor Pierce Brosnan's hand with my firmest grip, he winced and shook it in pain. Maybe Brosnan, who has played Secret Agent 007 for the past seven years, was going out of his way to stroke my ego. Maybe he was performing this routine for every journalist speaking to him. For one instant, I pretended to be leader of the evil terrorist organization SPECTRE, and Bond was in my grasp. Better yet, I was fellow MI6 Agent 009, and I had just beaten Bond in a hard-fought arm wrestling match. Either way, Brosnan's cry of discomfort felt good to hear, no matter what the reason.
"Six months of sword fencing on the last Bond picture and my arm has never been the same," Brosnan says, shaking his hand while flashing a smile.
Generation Gap
Everybody gets older, even iconic action heroes. At age 49, Brosnan still feels the aches and pains in his right arm from the recent Bond production Die Another Day (the film opens nationwide Friday). The film is the 20th Bond adventure. Actually it's the 21st if you count the 1983 Sean Connery Bond film, Never Say Never Again, made at a rival studio thanks to legal loopholes over property rights. Bond is Hollywood's longest-running film series, one that goes back 40 years. Die Another Day is also Brosnan's fourth appearance as Bond after being credited with rejuvenating the franchise with the 1995 Bond adventure GoldenEye.
The timing couldn't be worse for the veteran secret agent. In Die Another Day, Bond battles Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a megalomaniac intent on jump-starting a world war with a deadly satellite weapon. It's a job he's performed many times before. Off the movie screens, Brosnan has a more complex mission: He must continue to make Bond appealing to the same teen-age moviegoers currently flocking to Eminem's 8 Mile.
We're one year into the new millennium, and a new wave of young spy boys are making Bond look out-of-date. Matt Damon matches youthful verve with his boyish All-American good looks as Jason Bourne, the amnesiac hero in director Doug Liman's summertime hit, The Bourne Identity. Damon's Hollywood cohort Ben Affleck is smart and steady as CIA hero Jack Ryan, replacing Harrison Ford in The Sum of All Fears. Vin Diesel is the bulkiest of the new spy bunch, playing Xander "XXX" Cage, an extreme sports athlete recruited to be a spy by the U.S. Government in director Rob Cohen's hit movie, XXX.
Then there's Brosnan's Bond, a character who has to shake his 1960s Playboy image and prove himself cool enough to hang with today's extreme sports daredevils. Bond still surrounds himself with old guard accessories like ice-cold martinis, designer suits and luxury sports cars. He looks like XXX's disapproving uncle, and that's the problem. Bond is part of the generation gap.
Bond fans are also beginning to feel outdated. I'm a 37-year-old who knows more about Bond than Rap star Eminem. Like Bond, maybe I'm also a step behind the pop cultural zeitgeist. It's a question asked by all men, Bond and otherwise, who wake up and suddenly realize they are middle-aged. Am I still relevant? Am I still hip? Can I possibly enjoy the same thing as a teen-ager?
Somebody Else's Problem
It's early September and the Toronto Film Festival is well underway. Making his way through the festival crowds is Pierce Brosnan, who's come to Toronto to promote his film Evelyn, about Desmond Doyle, a single father who fights the government and the church for the return of his three children. Evelyn is a family-friendly tearjerker set in 1950s Ireland. It's a world away from Bond, and that's exactly what Brosnan wants. Brosnan's production company, Irish Dream Time, produced the film. So the fate of Evelyn is also important to Brosnan for personal reasons. Through Evelyn, Brosnan aims to remind people that he's an actor first and a famous secret agent second.
"I was trained as an actor to portray many different roles, and I always believed that I can play anything," Brosnan says, speaking during a mid-day interview. "But then you get into the real world and you do, for awhile, play many different roles, and you find one particular role or style of acting and you kind of get known for it. It's good because it pays the bills. You have a career that has some kind of security to it. But there has come a time now that I'm fully aware with in playing Bond that there has to be more to life than just playing Bond. There's got to be more of an emotional range if I'm going to carry on acting for the next 10 or 20 years. So it's time to go back to the emotional roots and do the work that is more revealing and challenging and have the confidence in that. So it was all of that knowledge that I would have to dig in a bit to play this guy and have an emotional core that is meaningful, truthful and hopefully, watchable."
In the midst of the hectic film festival, Brosnan has managed to sit in a quiet room at Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel. Brosnan is dressed casually, wearing slacks and an open-collared shirt. He still looks dashing and fit, like Bond, in fact, which is what you expect. He leans against a large conference table and talks about his role as the world's most famous action hero and his burning desire to move on to something else.
Midway into the film Evelyn, Desmond hits bottom. He becomes an unkempt drunk and rabble-rouser. You imagine that the same thing might happen to Bond if he ever were to lose his spy job. Actually, you wonder about Brosnan's fate when he finally stops playing Bond. Asked if he's worried whether audiences are willing to accept him without the tuxedo, Brosnan leans forward, looks me dead in the eye and answers point blank.
"I have nothing to lose," he says. "I have nothing to lose. If it (Evelyn) comes out and it's a crock, so what? I wouldn't be unemployable. I could still get a job somewhere, I think. People are going to take swings at you. They're going to take swings at you anyway. So if you're going to jump off, then jump with grace and flair."
Brosnan's savoir faire comes from the fact that his showbiz dreams have come true despite his hard-knock beginnings. He was born in Ireland in 1953, and his father left his family when he was an infant. His mother and grandparents raised him until his grandparents died and his mother moved to England to work as a nurse. Relatives cared for Brosnan until 1964 when he joined his mother and new stepfather in England.
Acting began by happenstance. Brosnan worked as a newspaper illustrator and took college night classes. When a friend invited him to attend the Oval House Theatre, an arts workshop, he quickly fell in love with acting.
Luck became his frequent companion. His role on the British TV series, Murphy's Stroke, earned him a part in the ABC-TV movie, The Manions of America. Los Angeles beckoned. So Brosnan and his late wife, Cassie, took out a second mortgage on their London house and moved to America. He soon had an agent and a job playing a dashing detective on the NBC-TV series, Remington Steele.
Brosnan's only setback occurred in 1986 when he was first offered the chance to play Bond. Remington Steele had been cancelled, but NBC renewed the show after a late boost in ratings. Brosnan couldn't get out of his TV contract, and Timothy Dalton went on to play the famous movie spy.
Brosnan's life took a sadder turn in the early '90s when Cassie succumbed to ovarian cancer. Brosnan rallied around his wife during her illness. Lightning struck a second time when he was again offered the chance to play Bond for 1995's Golden-Eye, and he dedicated the role to her memory.
The rest, as they say, is showbiz history. Die Another Day once again propels Brosnan into the limelight. He plans to use his production company to create new acting opportunities. Over the past seven years, he has played roles other than Bond, although his characters in films like The Thomas Crown Affair and The Tailor of Panama shares Bond's stylish characteristics. A small drama like Evelyn is important to Brosnan because it's something completely different.
"I want to do more comedy," Brosnan says. "I feel kind of stuck in one place with Bond. It's so all-consuming. It's so big. The Broccolis (producers of the Bond film) have said that it's mine for as long as I like, and I would certainly like to do another one. This last one was great to do in many respects, and I've become more comfortable in playing the role and in ownership of the role. I think we could pull off another one. If they want me, I'm there."
Our interview time is over, but Brosnan continues to talk openly about his house in Malibu, his new wife, Keely, and their family. He's friendly, although slightly reserved. Through the years, Brosnan has traveled to every corner of the world in support of the Bond films. He's become accustomed to publicity. But today seems quieter and little less hectic than what he's used to. It allows him the opportunity to exhale, step back and look at Bond from a slightly different perspective.
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By Woodrow J. Hinton
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Characters like Austin Powers build their fan base by
poking fun at James Bond.
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"Bond is a fluky old one," he says. "It's a fluky old one. It's so much about one's personality and one's confidence in playing that character. Roger (Moore) played it for laughs. Connery was the original. Back then, the films were made for adults. Now they're making them for kids, a broader audience. It's kind of tricky playing Bond. How much do you play around the nose? How serious do you play it? What level of intensity do you play it? And there are the one-liners, which thankfully were kept to a minimum this time, because I never feel like I'm good at giving the one-liners. I give it my best effort. Some guys can nail them in one take. You do an action sequence that takes six days to shoot and lasts three minutes on the screen, and then you have to deliver a one-liner.
"I think Lee Tamahori has made it much more compelling this time around. He gave it a bit of a graphic punch to it. I do believe, based on the bits that I've seen, I think it will stand out."
One thing has become clear before Brosnan gets up to leave: He wants to try something new. He has wandering eyes. It's time for something completely different because a variation on Bond would be a step backward, like reprising Remington Steele. Yet, no matter what he says or does, people the world over see him in his secret agent gear. The way Brosnan sees things, that's somebody else's problem.
"My job is not to define who I am and what I am. It's not my job to do that. I show up and hopefully the people will like it. So far they've liked the last three (Bond movies) and they've made a lot of money. Let the history books define and say who I was or how good I was and where I stand in line."
There's a handshake good-bye and once again, Brosnan flinches. It's a nice gesture no matter how much playacting is involved.
Martini Drinkers Unite
Recollections drive a movie character that's been around for 40 years, and Bond casts some long shadows. In The Spy Who Loved Me, one of the best films in the series, Bond skis off a mountain slope and parachutes to safety. Of course, the parachute opens into a colorful Union Jack. In Die Another Day, Bond surfs a giant wave in North Korea and uses a makeshift snowboard for a quick getaway in Iceland.
Lotte Lenya and her knife-wielding shoe in From Russia With Love have been replaced with more complex weaponry, like an Aston Martin V-12 Vanquish that turns invisible.
The people responsible for Bond's look have also changed. In past films, John Barry created the scores, and Monty Norman composed Bond's familiar theme. Maurice Binder was responsible for the films' sexy opening credits sequences that dreamt up ingenious ways to camouflage nude women. Production designer Ken Adams created the massive sets, most memorably a volcano that concealed a rocket launch pad in You Only Live Twice.
Years pass and actors come and go. Judi Dench has replaced the late Bernard Lee as Bond's supervisor, "M." John Cleese takes over from the late Desmond Llewelyn as Bond's gadget-building quartermaster, "Q." Sheryl Crow and Madonna have replaced Tom Jones and Nancy Sinatra as the performers of Bond theme songs.
Ursula Andress became a pin-up queen after playing girl Friday, Honey Ryder, in the first Bond adventure, Dr. No. Past Bond women had names like Pussy Galore and Holly Goodhead. The more modestly named Jinx and Miranda Frost are the stars of the new Bond movie.
The double-entendres remain, but everything else has changed. Action takes the place of violence and sex. Austin Powers asks us to remember Bond fondly, although he recreates Bond's sexual bravado as a source for gags.
Once again, the generation gap makes all the difference. In Goldfinger, Bond summed up the battle between parents and teen-agers like this: "Drinking Dom Perignon un-chilled is like listening to The Beatles without earmuffs."
These days, Harrison Ford looks tired and worn playing a Soviet submarine commander in the lifeless Cold War thriller, K-19: The Widowmaker. The recent TV spy show, Thieves, starring John Stamos and Melissa George, and the movie remake of I Spy, which paired Eddie Murphy with Owen Wilson, fail to engage audiences. Yet, Bond keeps going. The hope is that martini drinkers will unite with ecstasy popping club kids over the new Bond movie.
A Future for Bond
Later that day, I meet up with Beau St. Clair, who co-manages Irish Dream Time with Brosnan. St. Clair is a wiry and energetic woman who says exactly what's on her mind. St. Clair and Brosnan go way back, and she remembers watching the first screening of Brosnan's debut GoldenEye before anyone knew what to expect.
"There was a huge lack of confidence that the franchise could even work anymore in its time," St. Clair says. "People felt that it had gone out of date. Remember that? It had petered out by the Timothy Dalton days, and the question was could anyone revive it?
"Pierce and I went off to see GoldenEye for the first time that it had ever been shown to anyone, and we were really nervous. I love it when Pierce dropped in upside-down in that opening sequence after the amazing Bond-is-back-in-the-hugest way bungee jump, and he shoots that spear gun and pulls himself down. It's so Pierce. It's humorous, and yet there's an edge and danger to it. And then he jumps on that motorcycle and drives it right off the cliff and he starts falling towards the airplane. I'd like to see XXX copy that."
A few years ago, XXX's distributor, Sony Pictures was unsuccessful in its bid to launch a rival James Bond series. As a replacement, they have created XXX, and the result proved popular with moviegoers. Diesel has the street grit charisma necessary to be a New Millennium hero. The question is whether Bond will continue to maintain his standing as film's leading action hero.
The opening scene of XXX has a tuxedo-clad spy who drives an Aston Martin and is promptly killed in a Prague disco. Their allusion is not the least bit slight: Bond is killed. St. Clair finds the whole thing hilarious.
"Imitation is the highest form of flattery," St. Clair says. "I thought they threw everything but the kitchen sink in there. They stole whole sequences out of old Bonds. I went to the opening day with our staff to the 1 p.m. show in Santa Monica, and it was full of extreme sports characters. There were little girls with skateboards and guys with rings in their noses and us with our preppy boring office clothes. I'm pretty extreme in my taste in sports. But I'm howling in the back row because the plot -- you see everything that's coming. I laughed my head off, but the rest of the people didn't think it was as funny. They didn't think it was that cool. They looked at me like I just got released from rehab."
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By Woodrow J. Hinton
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XXX action hero Xander Cage, another character
moving in on 007's territory
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British actor Clive Owen plays a government agent in The Bourne Identity, and his name is mentioned as the most likely actor to succeed Brosnan as Bond. Current spy films like The Sum of All Fears and The Bourne Identity possess some much-needed realism, something that is valuable after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Bond, on the other hand, remains committed to comic book plots about megalomaniacs threatening to take over the world. Has Bond lost the tough edge of his first adventures close to 40 years ago?
Asked if there is a future for Bond, St. Clair answers with an emphatic yes. It's the other films that she worries about.
"How many more spy things are we going to have?" she asks. "I actually like those kinds of characters as long as you can do something new to continue to advance it. It's just this proliferation of secret agent things being developed. I mean Bond is Bond. It seems like an established fixture and as long they can compete with the effects they're OK. The linchpin is James Bond, that man and that character. Listen, everyone is nipping at their heels. Mission: Impossible is borrowing. Even Austin Powers. It forces them to evolve."
Publicity Maelstrom
It's two months later and signs of Bond are everywhere throughout Los Angeles. Billboards promoting Die Another Day hover over every street intersection. Stores are filled with Bond merchandise, offering something for every pocketbook. A large display in a Beverly Hills grocery store promotes From Russia With Love nail enamel and lipstick. In the next aisle, there is a seven-set of Bond Special Edition DVDs. A few blocks away, Ford prominently displays its three cars used in the new Bond movie, a Thunderbird, a Jaguar XKR and an Aston Martin V-12 Vanquish. The disclaimer is that unlike Bond's version, your Aston Martin is unable to disappear, despite its $234,000 price tag. Bond watches you from every aisle, and the movie isn't even out yet.
Bond was the Star Wars of the 1960s, but it's hard to imagine that when a kid's movie like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is making headlines.
Brosnan is at the center of the publicity maelstrom. He's scheduled to spend a weekend giving interviews to press from around the world. The whirlwind ends with the film's Hollywood premiere. Then, Brosnan and his Die Another Day cast are off to London for another gala screening.
The publicity takes its toll, and by the time of our follow-up interview, Brosnan bows out due to laryngitis. After all, James Bond with a whispery voice doesn't make for good publicity.
Pop myths aren't meant to last forever. Yet Bond wasn't meant to go down for the count on his 40th anniversary. Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori steps in for Brosnan. In fact, if Bond is experiencing slippery relevance then it's up to Tamahori to stop the slide.
Tamahori says he intentionally kept Bond out of a tuxedo for most of Die Another Day. He also downplayed the wisecracks. Basically, he wanted to toss Bond's stuffy cocktail persona out the window. Tamahori has seen XXX, and he likes the film. But he believes he has something better with Bond.
"I think the market place is big enough," he says. "I don't mind if they have a Bond clone and kill him off. It's fun. Austin Powers is having fun. XXX will probably make four of these films, and then that will be the end of it. It won't sustain itself for 20 movies. It will be like Lethal Weapon and run out of steam. I doubt if they'll get a new Xander Cage after Vin Diesel decides he doesn't want to do it anymore. It's revisionist. It's not going to knock out Bond. Is Mission: Impossible putting Bond in the grave?"
In Die Another Day, action is emphasized over the sex and violence. Stunts take priority and that's what current moviegoers want to see. The GoldenEye video game doubled the gross of the Bond film it was based on, meaning that there are young people who are fanatical about Bond. A new Bond game debuts with the film, and Bond producers hope lightning strikes twice.
Meanwhile, Halle Berry's character Jinx looks to be the most successful female spy since Diana Rigg played Emma Peel on the '60s spy show, The Avengers. In fact, Berry plans Jinx to be the first Bond girl spin-off. Imagine: A Bond girl movie without James Bond. Now, that's a sign of changing times. ©
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