Pierce Brosnan on The Matador

The former 007 on his new breed of inebriated assassin

Leaving behind a well-known character can be difficult for an actor. When it's a role as iconic as gentleman spy James Bond, the process holds a unique set of problems. "I've been very aware of painting myself into a corner," admits Pierce Brosnan, "and for some time, I've had a desire to break out of the mould that's been closing in around me. It's a great mould, make no mistake, and I was aware when I took the role that if I got it right, I would be labelled as Bond - but I knew something else had to happen."

This 'something else' has turned out to be The Matador, a stylised black comedy from Brosnan's production company Irish DreamTime. Here, Brosnan pays homage his previous role, and explores a very new direction. Far from smooth and debonair, Brosnan's character in The Matador is a badly-dressed, permanently randy, seriously sozzled hitman named Julian Noble, who's close to burning out when he finds an unexpected friend in ordinary businessman Greg Kinnear.

It's a fresh angle for Brosnan; he has been trying to stretch himself as an actor for some time. "My career hasn't gone the way I expected. I trained as a character actor in London, which was how I saw myself as a performer, and then I went to America, and essentially ended up playing myself for quite a while! It was great, but I'd always look at the other guys out there, playing these flashy, daring roles, and think, 'When is it going to come my way?' That was one of the main reasons my producer Beau St Clair and I set up the company, to do the kind of films I wanted to make, but which wouldn't necessarily be automatically offered to me."

Next page • "The Matador was such an incredible piece."