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Post by rosafermu on May 30, 2013 8:53:31 GMT -5
Pierce Brosnan will always be thankful his wife talked him into returning home to Ireland for their wedding rather than opting for a beach side ceremony in sunny California. The former Bond star, who was born Drogheda, Co Louth, wanted a small family wedding near his home in Malibu when he and wife Keely were planning to wed 12 years ago - but his bride-to-be had other ideas. Keely thought it best to head back to Ireland and exchange vows at Ashford Castle in Mayo, and Brosnan has to admit that it was the right choice. He tells tells BlogTalkRadio.com, "We had a church (in California) and then they wouldn't allow us to use the church for some religious reason or other, which is archaic and not even worth talking about. So my wife said, 'You gotta go find me a church!' So she sent me on a plane back to Ireland to go look for a church and I found a cathedral. "We got married in Ashford Castle and it was August 4th. I remember this old Irish woman, the night before, saying, 'You've got to get a child of Prague (statue) and put that outside on the west corner of the building. I found a Child of Prague, which is a little statue of Jesus dressed as a king, and staggered out after my night out with the lads and many Guinnesses, into the gardens of Ashford Castle and found a hydrangea bush and buried this Child of Prague. "It was raining in the morning and we went into the church and by the time we came out of the church and into the cathedral, Ballintubber Abbey, it was golden. It was just a gorgeous day and I remember Keely getting into the car in this cloud of wedding dress and looking like a princess with all the people of Ireland lining up the streets. "It was a mighty, mighty day. It was great. It was beyond words romantic. And it was at the height of James Bond and we were just gonna get married in Malibu on the beach but we thought the paparazzi are gonna kill us so she said, 'We should go to Ireland'." PIERCE BRENDAN BROSNA: HTTP://piercebrendanbrosnan.blogspot.comMemories of wedding in Ireland ( celebrity.msn) Attachments:
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Post by eaz35173 on May 30, 2013 18:48:28 GMT -5
www.theglobeandmail.com/life/celebrity-news/pierce-brosnan-on-tackling-tougher-roles-why-persecute-yourself/article12271463/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitterPierce Brosnan on tackling tougher roles: ‘Why persecute yourself?’SARAH HAMPSON The Globe and Mail Published Thursday, May. 30 2013, 5:00 PM EDT Pierce Brosnan strides into the hotel room, looking like the character he plays in almost every movie he has starred in. In his tailored sports jacket, casual pants and an open-neck shirt, he could have stepped off a yacht, and as he takes a seat by the window, he glances out at the sunshine as though he’s onboard one, slightly bored by the beauty of the view. This is the junket interview routine after all. In town last year for the Toronto International Film Festival, he knows what it usually entails: A brief exchange that’s a bit like a game of warm-up tennis, played close to the net, during which each person sends gentle offerings that the other can take an easy swing at. Everyone wins. The celebrity gets to say inconsequential things about the movie in question. The journalist get some quotes. Brosnan exudes a confident pleasure in who he is, offering an expression – a tentative smile, a slightly quizzical brow wrinkle – that one suspects he has practised in a mirror. It’s the look the Irish actor often deploys in his films, when the camera first comes upon him; viewers take in just how handsome he is, and the expression says, “This face? Well, it’s a face, it’s handsome and it’s mine.” In All You Need is Love, all Brosnan needs is that visage. The boomer romcom is directed by Susanne Bier (whose last film, In a Bitter World, won the Oscar for best foreign film in 2011). He plays Philip, a wealthy (and elegant, of course) British importer of fruits and vegetables, who is emotionally cut off, even from his son, whose marriage he is going to Italy to attend. He lost his wife in a tragic accident, and the world makes him angry. The mother of the bride, Ida, played by a lovely and sympathetic Trine Dyrholm, is dealing with cancer treatment and the discovery that her loathsome husband was so upset about her struggle with the disease that he had to have an affair. All the characters end up at a villa in southern Italy, where Philip owns a run-down villa in a lemon grove. Love ensues, but not with the young about-to-be-married couple. Brosnan’s 60 now, and the romantic leads are still his to play. “Long may it last,” he says in a hushed lullaby tone. He’s so one-note in his acting – from his break-out TV show in the 1980s as Remington Steele to James Bond to The Thomas Crown Affair – that you’d think he might wish for something a little outside his comfort zone. To get at the issue, I decide to ask about his art. It is in his painting that he seems more free to express himself than in the straightjacket of his typecast roles. He looks at me, slightly taken aback. “Well, you know, I left school at 15 with a cardboard portfolio of paintings. That’s all I had to my name, to my space and time. And I got a job as a commercial artist. And one day, one of the lads came in and he said, come along to the theatre club called the Oval House.” After that, Brosnan trained at the Drama Centre London for three years. Is he aware of the greater range of expression he has in his art? I persist, hoping he might stop playing Mr. Perfect. He produces a quizzical scowl. “I’m a creative person,” he explains. “It’s relaxation.” The paintings of his wife, Keely Shaye Smith, border on emotionally extravagant, the last thing he appears to be. (Well, I don’t dare say that. I simply say that they’re beautiful.) “They come from love, and when you do things from that part, about the likeability of someone, someone who is precious to your life, they sometimes have a good balance to them,” he replies. His first wife, Cassandra Harris, died in 1991 from ovarian cancer at the age of 43. The pair had been married 11 years. He and his second wife, with whom he has two teenaged sons, have been together for 17 years, married for 11. “I’m just a marrying man. I like being married. … And then I get to go off and do movies and kiss the girls,” he says, laughing. “Legal cheating, she calls it.” She doesn’t mind being married to someone with perennial sex appeal? He narrows his blue eyes. “Oh, God. This thing is going to run away with itself,” he says. “You Canadians are able to cut through the dross of it all,” he says, somewhat belligerently. “Happy marriage and celebrity often don’t go together. That’s all,” I explain. “That’s probably true,” he says, recouping a sense of calm. “But somehow, I’ve managed to make it work. I love the excitement of being an actor but, quite frankly, it confounds me that I did become an actor, and that I found such a lucrative business in it. I have a good life. … I want to have it all. And I want to eat my cake. I want to be a movie star and I want to be a dad and be a regular man and work hard. That’s the joy of it.” But aren’t there roles he would love to take on, that are different? (His greatest artistic departure on film was in The Matador, a 2005 dark comedy in which he played an assassin.) “I really don’t know,” he begins. “ I do look at [my body of work] and think, ‘God, ‘I’d love to be like Daniel Day Lewis and Gary Oldman, but you are who you are.’” It’s acceptance, then? “Yes,” he says with a sigh. “There’s part of me that’s probably lazy; that doesn’t challenge myself enough. And there’s a part of me that’s so content with playing on the same theme. Why persecute yourself? Tying yourself into knots? For what? And then falling apart trying to do it?” He speaks with a conviction that’s the closest he has come to sounding unscripted. “I just know that I haven’t laid down enough emotional yardage as an actor,” he adds. “I’ve gotten away and gotten by on one thing or another.” His good looks, perhaps. “Could be. Could be the hair. Could be the way you wear a suit. Could be the swagger, the walk, whatever. I’m acutely aware of that.” Could Mr. Suave actually wish he weren’t so suave? Is he suffering from leading-man curse? I never got to ask. His polished veneer had cracked only slightly, a moment he smoothed over with a little smile until in walked his publicist to rescue him from his discomfort.
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Post by eaz35173 on Jun 3, 2013 6:46:10 GMT -5
Found this on youtube from back in 1997 ...
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Post by rosafermu on Jun 3, 2013 7:13:42 GMT -5
Many thanks eaz.
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Post by piercebrosnanhot on Jun 21, 2013 17:08:37 GMT -5
Pierce Brosnan speaks out after the riots link
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Post by eaz35173 on Jun 25, 2013 16:58:09 GMT -5
Found this interview from The London Mirror - May 7, 2004 (not sure if it's been posted before) www.thefreelibrary.com/INTERVIEW%3A+FATAL+ATTRACTION%3B+SUAVE+PIERCE+BROSNAN+IS+A+REAL+CHARMER...-a0116327272INTERVIEW: FATAL ATTRACTION; SUAVE PIERCE BROSNAN IS A REAL CHARMER BOTH ON AND OFF SCREEN.Byline: MARTYN PALMER
On screen as James Bond, he's the ultimate playboy with some of the world's most beautiful women throwing themselves at his feet. But off screen, Pierce Brosnan admits he was never any good at being a womanising bachelor and, anyway, has been happily married for two and a half years to his second wife, journalist Keely Shaye-Smith. Brosnan puts all his suave charm to work in his latest film, the romantic comedy The Laws Of Attraction, which is released today. In it, he plays a divorce attorney, Daniel Rafferty, who tries to win the affections of his biggest court room rival, played by Julianne Moore. They eventually marry, but can they avoid the sort of mishaps which provide them with their business at work? The good-looking Irishman denies, however, that his portrayal of Bond or his con man playboy lead in The Thomas Crown Affair, bear any resemblance to his real life. "I certainly don't perceive myself as those characters," says Pierce, who turns 51 a week on Sunday. "In fact, I'd say my life is mainly a comedy. "I'd love to be a James Bond or Thomas Crown, but the beauty of this job is that I do get to be those guys and then I go home. So that's pretty good. "I'm the marrying kind. Marriage suits me and I enjoy being married. I love having a partner and I've been blessed in finding love twice. Other guys run a million miles from it but, for me, it provides a grounding, a balance and someone to share life with, plus all of the other great pleasures that go with it. "And you know, it's lonely the other way. The times I've been a bachelor, it was one girl to the other to the other to the other - and it kind of did my head in. Being a bachelor just didn't make sense and all that dating... well, I always came out of it just giving too much of myself and losing too much. And my work suffered." Brosnan's first wife, the Australian actress Cassandra Harris, died in 1991 at the age of 39 after a harrowing four-year battle with ovarian cancer. Pierce was left with three children to raise as a single dad - Charlotte, now 32, and Christopher, 30, his stepchildren from Cassie's first marriage, and their son Sean, now 20. After his wife's death, he was devastated, and grieved long and hard. "I don't think you ever really get over losing someone you love," he says. "But you have children to look after and life has to go on." Years later, when he began to socialise again, he was seen out on the town with a string of beauties, including supermodel Tatjana Patitz, TV reporter Kathryn Kinley and actress Julianne Phillips. But then he met environmental journalist Keely and it was, he says, love at first sight. "I was asked about the laws of attraction the other day," says Pierce, "because in the film my character is smitten instantly when he sees Julianne Moore. For me, it's the face, the eyes, body and voice. But usually it's the face. And a sense of humour when she speaks, that's a wonderful thing. The tone of voice, how she deals with the people around her, how generous of spirit she is, whether she is kind, intelligent and charming. There's an abundance of qualities in a woman. "When I first met Keely I just fell for her. I thought she was captivating. I spoke to her and it felt wonderful." They moved into a beautiful beach house in Malibu and have since had two more boys - Dylan Thomas, now seven, and Paris Beckett, three. They married in 2001. He may have a young family at home, but Brosnan's work schedule doesn't get any lighter. He's currently filming the Richard Shepard thriller The Matador, in which he plays a globetrotting assassin. Another drama, After The Sunset, is in post-production and he's next due to start work on Instant Karma, a comedy about reincarnation. But it's looking unlikely that we'll ever see Pierce Brosnan as James Bond again. Negotiations for him to return as 007 for a fifth time have broken down. "You'd have to ask the producers what is happening, because I really don't know," he says. "I'm 50 now and I think there comes a point where you just say, 'I've been there, I've done it'. The ones that I've done have been very successful and I think that if you look at them, there's been a progression in my work there. If there's a fifth, then great, I'd love to do it. If not, well, it had to end sometime. I have a great job and a wonderful family. I'm a happy man."
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Post by eaz35173 on Jul 1, 2013 16:16:20 GMT -5
danieleforsythe.tumblr.com/Why are these folks smiling? We’ll attribute the carefree expressions to a photo shoot gone well. On the other hand, it’s hard not to grin when one is hard at work relaxing in Kauai. Mark Arbeit (the handsome one, at right in the top pic) photographed the perenially dashing Pierce Brosnan at the Hawaii residence Brosnan and his wife Keely share, for the current issue of Hi Luxury magazine. Arbeit shares the outtakes above, along with the inside scoop we’d suspected all along: "Pierce was a very cool to work with, generous, lots of energy, down to earth." www.hiluxury.com/
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Post by Ace on Jul 1, 2013 17:31:49 GMT -5
Great Find. Larger cover:
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Post by piercebrosnanhot on Jul 1, 2013 19:32:43 GMT -5
WOW EAZ NICE FIND.I THINK THEY SHOULD UPLOAD SOME PICS OF HIM.
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Post by eaz35173 on Jul 1, 2013 22:27:15 GMT -5
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Post by eaz35173 on Jul 8, 2013 13:05:43 GMT -5
Pierce graces the cover of Sorted Magazine this month. The article is not available on-line yet, but here is the cover photo ...
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Post by piercebrosnanhot on Jul 9, 2013 21:09:16 GMT -5
nice cover...
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Post by eaz35173 on Jul 10, 2013 8:37:05 GMT -5
Found this from back in 1995 from a German talk show - Die Harald Schmidt Show. Pierce shows up around 37:00 when they do a Bond segment from what looks like the German premiere of Goldeneye. (Ace, wasn't sure if I should post this here or in a Bond thread - feel free to move it)
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Post by eaz35173 on Jul 21, 2013 11:31:56 GMT -5
From a Spanish language magazine ... www.excelsior.com.mx/funcion/2013/07/21/909817Translation courtesy of Google ... Brosnan, from fiction to realityActor Pierce Brosnan lived difficult days when a couple of weeks ago his daughter Cassandra [Charlotte] died of ovarian cancer, a situation reflected in the movies with the production 'Love is all you need' 21/07/2013 00:30 Fabian W. Waintal LOS ANGELES, July 21. - Over ten years ago that Pierce Brosnan hung James Bond suit and yet when we found him at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills people are still waving a "Hello James". The sighs of the women who come spend caress her back as a romantic spring breeze. And he simply gives a knowing smile with his fame. He knows that his blue eyes are seducing as ever, but is at least 60 years, although no longer the 007 , confirming the great return to espionage film so well known. It is very difficult to think of the 007 without thinking about you. Not strange at all to James Bond?Not at all. My days in the sun were very good, but is the work of someone else now. I have nothing but gratitude for having played the character of James Bond. It was a dream. And like all dreams, came the end and it's time to go. I worked as an actor all my life and in a way, that was just another job. On May 16 met no less than 60 years. Is a significant number or do not really take into account?
No, turning 60 has enough meaning. And I have nothing but gratitude to the road I traveled, while still maintaining my career. Sure there are some "Ah" and "Oh" sometimes when I move (laughs), but one becomes more aware of the body and every bone we have. I try to live a healthy life. 60 How did you celebrate? Was there a big party?Last year we had already done a great 59th birthday party for me because we had just finished building our house and we wanted to celebrate. So, this time with my wife went the Northern California alone, to spend quiet weekend and ... I asked her if she would marry me again. Do you mean that is as romantic as in the movies?
I like to think I'm a romantic person. I'm Irish, we know enough of romance. And you still did not accompany any of his children to the altar?
No, not something you experience yet. Did not he thought about the future and ... surrounded by grandchildren?Yeah, I thought. I think a lot about my time as a father and husband. And since I was 60 years I see my children and I hope to get to see grandchildren and a good partner in life. I have three children and two stepchildren, all grown up now. I hope to live a moment in my life. In the town of Navan, Ireland, Pierce Brendan Brosnan was born on May 16, 1953. And there he lived until he moved to England, where his mother had gone to seek work as a nurse, August 12, 1964 (the same day he died the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming). With divorced parents since I was a baby, like a real movie, Pierce had already ten years old when mom asked permission to marry again, with the man he considered his father (the same that led him to see the first James Bond film, Goldfinger, in 1964). In December 1980, few knew Pierce Brosnan when first married to Cassandra Harris, getting in the way with the fame of the TV thanks to the character of the thief who posed as detective series Remington Steele . By then Pierce learned to be a father, with two stepchildren (Christopher and Charlotte) and his eldest son (Sean), until a dramatic ovarian cancer took the life of his wife, on December 28, 1991, just one day after their wedding anniversary. With three children in their care (stepchildren's father also had died in 1986), Pierce became a single father who took ten years to rebuild her life, until she got married to Keely Shaye Smith on August 4, 2001, the mother of his two children (Dylan and Paris). Of course there had sprung to international fame, such as 007, that changed his life. According to legend, in 1986 and had been chosen for that character, when NBC was about to cancel the TV series Remington Steele , but as a last-minute re-signed, the filmmakers hired Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan filmed just six episodes of the series that was about to steal the destination. In 1989 also considered for Batman that starred Michael Keaton. And in 1995, eventually became the secret agent James Bond in the following blockbusters: GoldenEye (1995) Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002). The hopes of seeing him again with 007 Tuxedo, vanished at the time that Daniel Craig became the new British super agent happened to tell the beginning of his story. And after seeing Pierce Brosnan in the romantic comedy After The Sunset (2004) as well as The Matador (2005) and the musical Mamma Mia! (2008) and the drama The Greatest (2009), we are able to overtake : Pierce Brosnan returns to the spy film in the series of other secret CIA agent. Can we confirm that returns to cinema with a film series based secret agents in the book There Are No Spies ?Yes, it's a movie we're doing in Belgrade with my company Irish Dreamtime. It will be called Men November and is a spy movie. The Roger Donaldson directed, is very good. And that is what we are doing today is a story about the Cold War as well. My character is a man who lives a quiet life and bring the game back. And is just the beginning of another series of James Bond-style movies?It's possible we'll see. It's about a spy who trains one adult younger, a great Australian actor Dominic Cooper. I started shooting. Always wanted to be an actor?Since discovering this profession I wanted to be an actor in one hundred percent when I realized I had some talent and could be effective onstage. And how was that discovered acting?Hanging my coat a day at work. I worked as a commercial artist. I loved the movies, going to the movies all the time. And one day, a fellow of the photography department told me to accompany him to a drama club. I went and that was it. He was 18. - How hard is to make a film today, in a digital world where youth is more interested in the video games or music?Today it is not at all easy to make movies. For starters, it is very difficult to raise money in production. Therefore it is very important to give the best, as work, every day, because too much money involved, even two, three or twenty-seven million dollars. In a way I completely renounce my free time and never take it as something trivial. 'After having done so many films in addition to James Bond, there is another character that has cost him unstuck?I think The Matador was one of those movies. My wife was worried when I came back from filming in Mexico, with a gold chain around my neck yet. My acting style is not school as Daniel Day-Lewis, where you have to dive completely into character. I try to keep my judgment, but do not say that Daniel is crazy, but it's a different style of acting. And there are certain characters who end up living with me, have some resonance. Sometimes fiction reflects a certain reality and sometimes, reality is reflected by fiction. But by chance, Pierce Brosnan's new film premieres Love is all you need on the fiction of a woman who is dying of cancer and in fact his daughter Charlotte died of ovarian cancer itself he had before his mother, Cassandra . "My dear daughter Charlotte Emily passed to eternal life on June 28, at two in the afternoon," Pierce Brosnan officially confirmed. "Charlotte fought her cancer with grace, humility, courage and dignity. I pray for her and soon find a cure for this wretched disease. " Does the fact of having been so close to cancer, with the death of his first wife and daughter, influenced his decision to bring the drama of a story like a movie, with the movie Love is all you need ?I would say yes. The script touched my heart. I noticed many similarities with my life and the life of this man, in the film. How could he help it? I know what it means to lose a wife, having children and being a single parent. If I did a film like this now, I did not know when he would be able to do it. It's like if I met by chance. I'm at the perfect time in my life, in middle age and celebrating, as a man and as an actor. And the story of the film Love is all you need was also beautiful. The Spanish title suggests that all you need is love. Do you think that only love enough to live happily? Is it enough, without a career, without an economic balance?I think love is an essential part of being human. Of course it is. Where would we be without love? There is too little when you see the news of the world, seems to have a kind of devastation that shames our society. How necessary is the family love when working? Travelling with his wife and children, whenever shooting a new film?Depends. When I filmed Love is all you need, my kids were in school and travel was difficult. For when they began the holiday, I had almost finished the shoot. So I went to Hawaii where we have a house and this time did not come with me. Is it wrong of my work. The next film Love Punch , we shot with Emma Thompson in Paris and we could spend the summer together as a family, in France. So it all depends. In November Man 're filming in Belgrade and could not come with me, because they are also in school. Have you ever wondered "why did not I accepted that film I rejected"?I said "no" to many films that ended up being a success, but I never regret, because I decide to heart and I will have had some reason at that time. And if the good work could find my way, I suppose you can find someone else. What is a peace somehow have hung forever dress James Bond?I'm just an actor. I did many jobs. Someone told me the other day I made 69 films. And try to follow always hoping to find a job that I like and makes sense.
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Post by Ace on Aug 29, 2013 16:35:56 GMT -5
Irish Times: Brosnan’s latest rolePierce Brosnan gets to reprise some of his super-smooth James Bond style in a campaign for Hackett, shot by Terry O’NeillRosemary MacCabe Sat, Aug 24, 2013, 01:00 First it was Remington Steele; then James Bond. Now his best-loved role might just be that of Pierce Brosnan, the self-obsessed Brosnan of the Sky Broadband ads, a turn that revealed a certain self-deprecation that we Irish love. Now the 60-year-old is stepping into a different kind of suit: one from Hackett, to be precise, for the British brand’s autumn/winter campaign. Shot by legendary fashion photographer Terry O’Neill, it sees Brosnan in a variety of Bond-like poses: in a boardroom overlooking the city, disembarking (or at least walking away from, perhaps in the instant before it explodes) a private plane; embracing a leggy blonde. What appealed to you about working with Hackett?I was walking down Sloane Street one day and here was this store called Hackett, that I remembered from years past – but here it was with a whole new makeover. It became my favourite store, so when they called to ask if I would be part of their campaign, it was a very organic acceptance. What’s your favourite image from the shoot?I loved the whole shoot – I admire Terry O’Neill very much. He has worked with two of my favourite movie heroes, Sean Connery and Steve McQueen, so to replicate his own work with these two great icons was a memorable experience. What’s the best style lesson you’ve learned?Always make sure your fly is done up before going out the door. Head up, shoulders back – and smile. What items in your wardrobe can’t you live without?My Bottega Veneta slip-on shoes – and their belts – and the new Nike sneakers, the Air Free. You travel a lot – how does your style differ from LA to London and Hawaii (where Brosnan has a home)?Hawaii is shorts and flip flops and an old, short-sleeved shirt. London is dark jeans and a jacket. LA is blue jeans, sneakers and a great shirt. Is there anything you wouldn’t holiday without?Sunglasses, drawing pads and good pencils, my iPhone and headphones – and a great bag to carry it all. What film projects do you have coming up?I have two movies coming out at the end of the year – A Long Way Down, with Toni Collette and Aaron Paul, and Love Punch, with Emma Thompson. I’m also making a movie in Serbia with my company Irish Dream Time, called November Man. Then I’ll rest in Hawaii for a month before starting my next movie, How to Make Love Like an Englishman, with Kristin Scott Thomas and Jessica Alba. What are your favourite films?The Godfather; Marlon Brando and the power of every performance in Unforgiven, with Clint Eastwood; There Will be Blood, with Daniel Day Lewis – everything he does is great. What are your other passions in life?My family is the greatest joy and passion, and I love to paint. To be home on the island of Kauai, golfing and swimming, hiking and stand-up paddle-boarding around the bay at sunset with the dolphins; sitting on our beach under my palapa , hand-made by me – well, with the help of my boys.
And watching the sun go down with my wife, Keely [Shay Smith]. As the stars come out we light a bonfire on the beach and toast the day with a good bottle of wine.
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Post by eaz35173 on Aug 29, 2013 17:04:50 GMT -5
Some good questions in this one! He definitely describes his style accurately for Hawaii, London, and LA. And we've all noticed his affinity for those Nikes! Funny about making sure his fly is always zipped!
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Post by eaz35173 on Oct 9, 2013 14:25:08 GMT -5
staticmultimedia.com/movies/pierce-brosnan-enjoys-life-luck-and-making-moviesPierce Brosnan Enjoys Life, Luck and Making MoviesPOSTED BY INTERVIEW PEOPLE ON WED, OCT 9 IN MOVIES & TV Over the past decade, Pierce Brosnan has enjoyed an inspired career renaissance. With films like Matador, Mamma Mia, and the recent Love is All You Need, the handsome Irishman has put his Bond legacy behind him and carved out a new image as romcom star. His latest film, Love Punch, is a highly engaging caper comedy in which he proves his comic mettle alongside co-star Emma Thompson and even makes sly allusions to Brosnan’s former MI-6 credentials. They play a divorced couple who reunite to steal a massive diamond when they learn that they are facing financial ruin as a result of their bank’s reckless ways. The action plays out on the French Riviera which serves as a sumptuous setting for this light-hearted romp that owes everything to the abundant chemistry between Brosnan and Thompson. “Em and I have long wanted to work together and now that we have we can’t work to do it again,” the 60-year-old Bronson says. “Playing a middle-aged jewel thief was also a chance to pay homage to a character from my past. (Bond) is the gift that keeps on giving.” Love Punch has something of a Pink Panther flair to its proceedings, and Brosnan revelled in the chance to exercise his comic chops. And why not? The man has experienced more than his fair share of tragedy in life, losing his first wife Cassandra Harris to ovarian cancer in 1991 and his (adopted) daughter Charlotte this summer from the same illness. Brosnan met his second wife Keely Shaye-Smith, a journalist and environmentalist, at a Hollywood benefit in 1994, and they have been inseparable ever since. They have two sons, Dylan, 16, and Paris, 12, and they divide their time between homes in Kauai, Hawaii, and Malibu, California. Sitting down for my chat with Pierce Brosnan in a glittering downtown Toronto hotel suite, it was a pleasure to see the dashing actor in top form, wearing a dark blue suit and looking as debonair as he once did as James Bond. Pierce, what was it about Love Punch that drew you to the project?First, it was being able to work with Em and being able to laugh our way through this film together. Emma has a crystal presence. When you’re working with her, you know exactly what it’s all about. I loved playing the straight man to her clownish side and she’s so brilliant at it. It also struck me that I didn’t have to work very hard to play my character because I felt like I was playing myself. All I had to do was make sure I knew my lines and didn’t bump into the furniture. This film will strike people as the kind of comedy we don’t see so much anymore?There’s a lot of truth to that. There’s a silly and carefree side to it and I saw it as a celebration. It’s about the lightness of the human heart and just a delightful romp through life. I think the public needs films like this where you can just let yourself go and ease your spirit for a few hours. It’s the kind of film that has a good chance of making you happy instead of shocking or scaring you with some impending apocalypse or alien invasion. There’s a touch of Cary Grant in your performance?That’s a very high compliment which I’m not sure I’m deserving of but thank you. Cary Grant was my model as an actor when I was starting out and I used him as a reference for the character of Remington Steele. I studied his performances and I admired his debonair appeal. So I owe him a lot. Is this type of comedic film something of a return to that kind of light-hearted spirit?I’ve become very comfortable with the genre in recent years. I’ve done a lot of dramas, I’ve done Bond, I’ve done films like The Thomas Crown Affair which had a certain elegance to it, and comedy was something that held a certain allure and challenge. At this stage in my life, I want to do more light-hearted films although I’m still going to do the odd drama or thriller like Ghost Writer (a 2010 film directed by Roman Polanski) or November Man (his latest film directed by Roger Donaldson and scheduled for release in 2014). I’m not looking to prove myself anymore. Was acting a dream of yours when you were growing up?No. I came upon acting almost accidentally while I was working as a graphic artist in London at a small studio although I basically cleaned the office and made tea for people. One day I was talking to a guy in the photo department about movies, and he said, “You should come along to the Oval House Theatre, they’re doing workshops.” I had no idea what a workshop was. I went there on a winter’s evening. I had to lie down on the floor, hum, get up, wander around, explore people’s faces – experimental theater. That’s how it started…Somehow, that night at the Oval House turned into a great exploration of self and the excitement about the possibility of becoming an actor. How do you look back on your career?It’s a fickle business. You never feel that secure and you have to be constantly aware of the possibility that it can disappear very quickly. I’ve seen it happen to other people and I’ve also seen my own fortunes fade very rapidly. As an actor, you have to have a great deal of determination and self-belief. You’re always hunting for the next role and with each film you find yourself having to deconstruct your own identity and dissolve into each new character. It’s an interesting process. Did you always know that you needed to go to Hollywood to have a shot at a big career?It was my late wife (Cassandra), God bless her, who said we should go to America, and somehow we took out a second mortgage on the central heating, and we went to Los Angeles on a wing and a prayer. And the first audition I went on was for Remington Steele, and I got the job. And I had no idea what to do with Remington Steele. Bob Butler was the director, and he said, ‘It’s an old movie.’ So I looked at Cary Grant movies and tried to be Cary Grant. Life hasn’t always treated you that fairly. What impact does that have on you?(Pauses) You learn to adapt. I grew up in southern Ireland where my father had left my mother and I was raised by my grandparents. It wasn’t easy for me and it made me wary of what life could throw at you. My Irishness has also helped ground me, although I’ve had to learn to become more open and more embracing of life. You wear yourself down by letting the heaviness of things overshadow your outlook. I’ve had to rely on religion and faith and the love of a wonderful woman in Keely to overcome those darker times. You’ve often spoken of how meeting Keely was an incredible stroke of luck in some sense…?It’s very rare to find great love twice in one’s life. When I met Keely, I thought I had a chance to experience that incredible feeling again and I was right. I never expected it to happen, but when it did, it restored some of my faith in life in a very fundamental and beautiful way. It’s an extraordinary thing. You’ve been together nearly twenty years now – is that correct?It will be twenty years next April and it’s been a wonderful journey together. It’s more than just the love you feel for someone, it’s also the sense of companionship and friendship which is what keeps you together over the long run. Every couple knows that love is not always as intense as it was when you first came together, and so you need to not only love your partner but also enjoy their company and still want to share many different plans and hopes for the future. It’s the most beautiful feeling in the world to have someone in your life who makes you feel so glad and content with yourself and with your partner. What’s your daily life like when you’re not working on a film?I have a fairly simple routine. I drop my sons off at school and usually I like to play tennis for a few hours, go for a workout at the gym, and then go home and have lunch with Keely. I spend my afternoons reading scripts, making phone calls, discussing projects and things like that, or when I’m in the mood I’ll go upstairs to my studio and work on my painting. Then I’ll pick the boys up from school and get ready for dinner with Keely. I love all that and I treasure that time because often when I’m away shooting a film for two or three months I’ll miss those family moments terribly. What are some of your future projects. Any hope for finally doing a sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair?We’ve been talking about it for years. It’s still on the shelf…dormant. I don’t think it’ll happen. We might have a window to do it if my next film, November Man, which I did with my producing partner, Beau St. Clair, does well. If that film has traction, we have a calling card to be able to go to MGM and say, “Let’s go with the Thomas Crown sequel.” You’re 60 now. Does life become any easier?No, but you learn to deal with the highs and lows a bit better. I try to lead my life with as much grace and good humour as I can. I’ve lived a good life and made the most of my opportunities. I would like to think I worry less about things, but I’m not so sure… (Smiles and sighs)
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Post by eaz35173 on Oct 19, 2013 13:29:46 GMT -5
Pierce Brosnan talks about his deep Catholic faith, and says it sustained him through major crises. "(Prayer) helped me with the loss of my wife to cancer and with a child who had fallen on tough times. Now prayer helps me to be a father, to be an actor and to be a man,” Brosnan told the Irish website. “It always helps to have a bit of prayer in your back pocket. At the end of the day, you have to have something and for me that is God, Jesus, my Catholic upbringing, my faith.” "God has been good to me. My faith has been good to me in the moments of deepest suffering, doubt and fear. It is a constant, the language of prayer … I might not have got my sums right from the Christian Brothers or might not have got the greatest learning of literature from them but I certainly got a strapping amount of faith." "But there is one thing that the people of Ireland know how to do and that is to survive. You have to keep your faith and stay optimistic,” he feels.
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Post by eaz35173 on Oct 25, 2013 18:24:48 GMT -5
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brina
Adventurer
Posts: 120
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Post by brina on Nov 24, 2013 11:29:35 GMT -5
I know mention was made a few pages back of the Larry King interview Pierce did earlier this year, but I wasn't sure if it had been posted anywhere. This is a link to the full interview and what a great interview it is too: rt.com/shows/larry-king-now/pierce-brosnan-895/Apologies if it's already been posted somewhere else on the forum.
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