Post by Yuliya on May 27, 2003 21:41:41 GMT -5
Just not to confuse it with his previous apearance on the same show; that one was aired in the States sometime later; this one wasn't - at least, not yet.
The transcript is courtesy of a nice lady who calls herself Chayna.
*****
Parky's previous guests had been Rory Bremner and Rowan Atkinson, whose new film is Johnny English.
Michael Parkinson: My final guest is one of the biggest box office stars. He has been described as the best James Bond of them all. His latest film could not be further from the world of super agents and all the attendant glamour. The hero is an ordinary guy fighting to rescue his children from institutional care. Now in this scene he's seeking answers in a Dublin pub.
Clip from Evelyn where priest is collecting for orphans in Africa.
Michael Parkinson: Ladies and gentlemen - Pierce Brosnan (who enters to James Bond theme)
Pierce Brosnan (to cheers etc from audience): Oh you're very kind, thank you.
Michael Parkinson: Now you've seen Johnny English. Do you see him as a successor to James Bond? A rival?
Pierce Brosnan: Unfortunately, I do. Yes, I think he's gonna have great success with this character. I saw it the other night. It's affectionately done and it's hysterical. It's hysterical. (Rowan Atkinson's reactions are being shown here as he listens to Pierce). I really had no idea what I was going to see, so I went to the cinema to see this director's work and I know Rowan's work. I'm a big fan. But to see him go down the corridors of MI5 and just, I thought "Oh my god, do I really look that poncey in the films?" (Rowan is shows as if thinking then nods several times and Pierce is laughing). Oh dear, dear. Oh god. But as I say, it has such affection.
Michael Parkinson: Speaking about affection, so have Evelyn, your film. I mean it's a labour of love as far as you're concerned isn't it?
Pierce Brosnan: Well it's taken 6 years to get it to the screen.
Michael Parkinson: 6 years (smiling and shaking his head in sort of amazement)
Pierce Brosnan: We read the script 6 years ago. I fell in love with it and in that time we worked on other pictures. We did The Thomas Crown Affair and I did a couple of Bond movies and in 2001 we had the script where we said "We have to make it" and I gave it to Bruce Beresford. He loved it and we were off.
Michael Parkinson: Originally you weren't going to be in it were you?
Pierce Brosnan: Well it was up and down and we had a play reading in Santa Monica.There's a lot of Irish actors there and we sat round one afternoon. I read it and I thought "I can't let this character go". He's too close to me really in many respects. You know, it's about a father, I know something about fathering. (slight smile). It's about an Irishman dealing with the church, Desmond Doyle, 1953, the wife left him and in those kind of dark days in Ireland, the church and the state had such a grip over the community that they could come in and take your children away and they did; and it's documented in the annals of the Irish judicial system. I thought that was really appealing, it was very well written and it had humour.
Michael Parkinson: Yes
Pierce Brosnan: Some of these films can be kind of rather heavy handed.
Michael Parkinson: Yes it has got humour. It's a very powerful film too and of course it being true, gives it that extra dimension as well and he changed the Irish legal system - this very ordinary man. The echoes are there though, as you said. Part of the film is about the cruelty of the institutions and the way that the church would use its position to be cruel. You had experience of that too, didn't you, with the Christian Brothers?
Pierce Brosnan: I was taught by the Christian Brothers in Navan, County Meath and also in Kells, County Meath and they were a pretty hard bunch of men and I could never really fathom it when I was a young fella there, saying the Our Father and some little lad would come in and be later for school and this man would just lay into him, you know, give him a lashing. So ... but within that there was also the good brothers as well and I think this film, Evelyn, strikes a good balance within the church. The film is about faith and is about courage and one man who can make a difference, you know.
Michael Parkinson: Well let's have look at that aspect of the film and this is a sequence where your character goes to the convent where your daughter has been taken and pleads to see her. (clip shown)
Pierce Brosnan: The young girl is Sophie Vavasseur.
Michael Parkinson: I was going to ask you - she's wonderful. Where did you find her?
Pierce Brosnan: They auditioned. I wasn't there for that part of the casting, I couldn't be there. They went through hundreds, thousands of young kids and this girl... They sent me the tape, actually and I got the tape one evening in California and I said to my wife and the children, I said "We're gonna look for Evelyn tonight" and I knew there was 14 girls on the tape and I put the tape in and I couldn't get the sound on the telly to work. It was one of these plasma TVs and so many bloody buttons and stuff like this (all this time both his hands are moving as if pressing buttons on a remote control). So I said "We'll just carry on watching without the sound", and this girl came up and she was, I don't know, number 9, and she had such a beautiful countenance to her and a concentration and a focus and she had a vulnerability, everything you were looking for in this character. So I phoned the office in Ireland the next day and I said "Number 9" and they said "This is the one that we've all chosen". So it became Sophie Vavasseur.
Michael Parkinson: She's marvellous. The old saying about not working with child actors, I will also add to that, having seen the film, child actors and Alan Bates, because it's a rumbustious performance by Mr. Bates, isn't it?
Pierce Brosnan: Oh yes, he pulls out all the stops here.
Michael Parkinson: And some more.
Pierce Brosnan: Connelly is a great character and again based on a real man and I fought tooth and nail to get Alan in the picture. I mean we all wanted him but, you know, the budget starts this big (hands doing the actions here) and then it gets whittled down and so suddenly you're going around (again the actions - paying money out of his pocket) "A bit of money here, a bit of money there" and we finally got Alan. You know I'm working with Alan Bates and I think "This is it. I'm with the great Alan Bates and I'm holding my own. This is brilliant - I'm brilliant too" (preening) and then, of course, you watch the picture and he steals every scene (smiling). But it was a lovely ensemble piece and Stephen Rea is someone I've known for many, many years and again because of the text and a really fine story (brushes hair off forehead here) and Bruce Beresford. Once we got Bruce Beresford on board, a man who has directed Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Moran and Tender Mercy, so we had him, had a great text and then these fantastic actors came along.
Michael Parkinson: That is the nice thing, of course, that you can now use your success because of Bond to actually finance and put on films like this, that you really want to do.
Pierce Brosnan: I formed this company to make my own pictures and to play something like Desmond, which is kind of truer to who I am than James Bond.
Michael Parkinson: Well, there's lots and lots of echoes there of your life - in the entire film. (Pierce is agreeing with 'Mmm, mmm') The fact of this child being left alone, because you were that, your father left you, your mother came to England, then you came to England when you were 10. You must have felt, did you feel like an alien when you arrived in England from Ireland?
(Pierce has been taking a long drink of water and looking studious while this was being said)
Pierce Brosnan: It was 1964, I remember it, I remember it well. (slight wry laugh/smile) The uncle drove me out to the airport. I didn't feel like an alien really, but I remember Aunt Eileen getting me all kind of dressed up in my little sweater and the dicky-bow and stuff like this and she put a bottle of holy water in one hand, which was in an aspirin bottle, and the rosary beads in the other and the uncle drove me out to the airport and had a pint at the bar and met a priest there and said "Would you look after the lad?" Got the little prop plane, got to London and the priest just went off and I kind of followed the masses of people; going through customs and they said "Do you have anything to declare?" and I said "Tirty Craven A" (tirty = 30 in Irish accent) (laughter from Parky) You suddenly realised. I was a little Irish boy and I went to a very large Comprehensive school. I was Irish. I didn't feel alien but I certainly had to fight my way through it. You end up getting into scraps the whole time and then that gets boring, so you use comedy to deflect, to fit in, to find your position and the comedy was a good grounding for me and I suppose, maybe, it was where the seed of acting happened.
To be continued...
The transcript is courtesy of a nice lady who calls herself Chayna.
*****
Parky's previous guests had been Rory Bremner and Rowan Atkinson, whose new film is Johnny English.
Michael Parkinson: My final guest is one of the biggest box office stars. He has been described as the best James Bond of them all. His latest film could not be further from the world of super agents and all the attendant glamour. The hero is an ordinary guy fighting to rescue his children from institutional care. Now in this scene he's seeking answers in a Dublin pub.
Clip from Evelyn where priest is collecting for orphans in Africa.
Michael Parkinson: Ladies and gentlemen - Pierce Brosnan (who enters to James Bond theme)
Pierce Brosnan (to cheers etc from audience): Oh you're very kind, thank you.
Michael Parkinson: Now you've seen Johnny English. Do you see him as a successor to James Bond? A rival?
Pierce Brosnan: Unfortunately, I do. Yes, I think he's gonna have great success with this character. I saw it the other night. It's affectionately done and it's hysterical. It's hysterical. (Rowan Atkinson's reactions are being shown here as he listens to Pierce). I really had no idea what I was going to see, so I went to the cinema to see this director's work and I know Rowan's work. I'm a big fan. But to see him go down the corridors of MI5 and just, I thought "Oh my god, do I really look that poncey in the films?" (Rowan is shows as if thinking then nods several times and Pierce is laughing). Oh dear, dear. Oh god. But as I say, it has such affection.
Michael Parkinson: Speaking about affection, so have Evelyn, your film. I mean it's a labour of love as far as you're concerned isn't it?
Pierce Brosnan: Well it's taken 6 years to get it to the screen.
Michael Parkinson: 6 years (smiling and shaking his head in sort of amazement)
Pierce Brosnan: We read the script 6 years ago. I fell in love with it and in that time we worked on other pictures. We did The Thomas Crown Affair and I did a couple of Bond movies and in 2001 we had the script where we said "We have to make it" and I gave it to Bruce Beresford. He loved it and we were off.
Michael Parkinson: Originally you weren't going to be in it were you?
Pierce Brosnan: Well it was up and down and we had a play reading in Santa Monica.There's a lot of Irish actors there and we sat round one afternoon. I read it and I thought "I can't let this character go". He's too close to me really in many respects. You know, it's about a father, I know something about fathering. (slight smile). It's about an Irishman dealing with the church, Desmond Doyle, 1953, the wife left him and in those kind of dark days in Ireland, the church and the state had such a grip over the community that they could come in and take your children away and they did; and it's documented in the annals of the Irish judicial system. I thought that was really appealing, it was very well written and it had humour.
Michael Parkinson: Yes
Pierce Brosnan: Some of these films can be kind of rather heavy handed.
Michael Parkinson: Yes it has got humour. It's a very powerful film too and of course it being true, gives it that extra dimension as well and he changed the Irish legal system - this very ordinary man. The echoes are there though, as you said. Part of the film is about the cruelty of the institutions and the way that the church would use its position to be cruel. You had experience of that too, didn't you, with the Christian Brothers?
Pierce Brosnan: I was taught by the Christian Brothers in Navan, County Meath and also in Kells, County Meath and they were a pretty hard bunch of men and I could never really fathom it when I was a young fella there, saying the Our Father and some little lad would come in and be later for school and this man would just lay into him, you know, give him a lashing. So ... but within that there was also the good brothers as well and I think this film, Evelyn, strikes a good balance within the church. The film is about faith and is about courage and one man who can make a difference, you know.
Michael Parkinson: Well let's have look at that aspect of the film and this is a sequence where your character goes to the convent where your daughter has been taken and pleads to see her. (clip shown)
Pierce Brosnan: The young girl is Sophie Vavasseur.
Michael Parkinson: I was going to ask you - she's wonderful. Where did you find her?
Pierce Brosnan: They auditioned. I wasn't there for that part of the casting, I couldn't be there. They went through hundreds, thousands of young kids and this girl... They sent me the tape, actually and I got the tape one evening in California and I said to my wife and the children, I said "We're gonna look for Evelyn tonight" and I knew there was 14 girls on the tape and I put the tape in and I couldn't get the sound on the telly to work. It was one of these plasma TVs and so many bloody buttons and stuff like this (all this time both his hands are moving as if pressing buttons on a remote control). So I said "We'll just carry on watching without the sound", and this girl came up and she was, I don't know, number 9, and she had such a beautiful countenance to her and a concentration and a focus and she had a vulnerability, everything you were looking for in this character. So I phoned the office in Ireland the next day and I said "Number 9" and they said "This is the one that we've all chosen". So it became Sophie Vavasseur.
Michael Parkinson: She's marvellous. The old saying about not working with child actors, I will also add to that, having seen the film, child actors and Alan Bates, because it's a rumbustious performance by Mr. Bates, isn't it?
Pierce Brosnan: Oh yes, he pulls out all the stops here.
Michael Parkinson: And some more.
Pierce Brosnan: Connelly is a great character and again based on a real man and I fought tooth and nail to get Alan in the picture. I mean we all wanted him but, you know, the budget starts this big (hands doing the actions here) and then it gets whittled down and so suddenly you're going around (again the actions - paying money out of his pocket) "A bit of money here, a bit of money there" and we finally got Alan. You know I'm working with Alan Bates and I think "This is it. I'm with the great Alan Bates and I'm holding my own. This is brilliant - I'm brilliant too" (preening) and then, of course, you watch the picture and he steals every scene (smiling). But it was a lovely ensemble piece and Stephen Rea is someone I've known for many, many years and again because of the text and a really fine story (brushes hair off forehead here) and Bruce Beresford. Once we got Bruce Beresford on board, a man who has directed Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Moran and Tender Mercy, so we had him, had a great text and then these fantastic actors came along.
Michael Parkinson: That is the nice thing, of course, that you can now use your success because of Bond to actually finance and put on films like this, that you really want to do.
Pierce Brosnan: I formed this company to make my own pictures and to play something like Desmond, which is kind of truer to who I am than James Bond.
Michael Parkinson: Well, there's lots and lots of echoes there of your life - in the entire film. (Pierce is agreeing with 'Mmm, mmm') The fact of this child being left alone, because you were that, your father left you, your mother came to England, then you came to England when you were 10. You must have felt, did you feel like an alien when you arrived in England from Ireland?
(Pierce has been taking a long drink of water and looking studious while this was being said)
Pierce Brosnan: It was 1964, I remember it, I remember it well. (slight wry laugh/smile) The uncle drove me out to the airport. I didn't feel like an alien really, but I remember Aunt Eileen getting me all kind of dressed up in my little sweater and the dicky-bow and stuff like this and she put a bottle of holy water in one hand, which was in an aspirin bottle, and the rosary beads in the other and the uncle drove me out to the airport and had a pint at the bar and met a priest there and said "Would you look after the lad?" Got the little prop plane, got to London and the priest just went off and I kind of followed the masses of people; going through customs and they said "Do you have anything to declare?" and I said "Tirty Craven A" (tirty = 30 in Irish accent) (laughter from Parky) You suddenly realised. I was a little Irish boy and I went to a very large Comprehensive school. I was Irish. I didn't feel alien but I certainly had to fight my way through it. You end up getting into scraps the whole time and then that gets boring, so you use comedy to deflect, to fit in, to find your position and the comedy was a good grounding for me and I suppose, maybe, it was where the seed of acting happened.
To be continued...