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BY LARRY CARROLL |
Pierce Brosnan may be best known as suave spy James Bond, but the
elegant Irish-born actor has been working in Hollywood for over twenty
years, in a variety of roles. In a candid chat recently, Brosnan reflected
on the character that has brought him the most fame, and his desire to
be seen as more than just Bond.
Die Another Day, the twentieth film in the 007 franchise, is the
fourth for Brosnan. It was tough to step into the tux at first, but is
there still any difficulty getting into the character? "With three
successful movies behind me, I slip into the role now," he observes.
"It's like putting on a comfortable pair of slippers in some respects.
This role's mine, and it has been for some years, though trying to get
ownership of it is difficult because so many other good men have gone
before. I still give a hundred and ten percent all the time. The challenge
now is to continually make it better than the one before. That's tough
because I think we've set the bar so high."
After four films, you would think that it would be difficult for an actor
to keep finding new things about the man with the license to kill. But
Brosnan insists that he has to keep at it. The day he stops finding new
things in Bond, he says, is the day he'll walk away. "Bond is an
action hero, a fantastic creation. But you still have to fight for the
character," he insists. "You still have to find what he's hungry
for and find the drama within all the action."
So, the question needs to be asked: what character traits did he discover
in Day? "Oh, there's great character in this film, and it's
very exciting. Bond is captured, tortured and stripped of his credentials
as a double-O agent. For the first time, he becomes a renegade, forced
to redeem himself and get back into the game. He almost loses his identity.
What better grist for the mill for a character like Bond?" The actor
really seems to have enjoyed the different direction they took the spy
in for this film.
As well he should - he had creative input in the decisions. "I made
a point of sitting down with the writers, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade,
and talking about the script from an early stage," Brosnan remembers.
"We tossed around questions: What if Bond was captured? What if he
was outside the loop? We talked broad strokes - then, of course, it was
up to them, and they did great things with it."
Die Another Day seems like James Bond for the 21st Century, and
this re-working, Brosnan says, was quite intentional. After the writers
created the script, Director Lee Tamahori went to work. And he had the
same updating in mind that Brosnan did. "The choice of directors
has always been quite solid," the star insists. "But Lee Tamahori
has his own distinctive style, very loose and energetic. Hes done an
incredible job for Die Another Day, making it very muscular, very
edgy and very sharp. He knew the story inside out. He knew the nuances
of all the characters." Brosnan laughs when he thinks about the director's
command on the set. "Lee has a very quick brain."
Brosnan has been very busy lately, and not just as an actor. His production
company, Irish Dream Time, will be releasing Evelyn next month,
a touching film about a father in Ireland fighting to regain custody of
his children. He chose the project to produce and star in because he responded
to the script "as an actor and as somebody looking for a good story."
The film was shot on location in Ireland, which also forced him to begin
re-examining his roots. "I'm Irish and that is my country and where
I come from. It is also the essence of who I am as a man and as an actor,
that is my true essence and having been brought up in an English school
system and class system, I have adopted some of their ways, then as an
American lifestyle. It is always good to go back especially as an actor
and as an artist so to speak, in order to reinforce one's identify."
Evelyn is very different than the Bond films, and promises to
show audiences a side of Brosnan they've never seen before. But, the actor
says, he might never have gotten the chance if not for the high visibility
that he has achieved over the last few years. "I don't think they
would have made it, not if I hadnt had Bond under my belt as bankability,"
Brosnan asserts. He also figures that he never would have been able to
get the lead role of Desmond Doyle, a man who the script described as
being very plain. "I dont think anyone would have cast me: 'too
this', 'Too that', 'too pretty', 'too good-looking', 'too suave."
These are the features that put him in Bond's shoes in the first place.
But, as the actor approaches his fiftieth birthday, some people have already
begun to speculate who the next Bond could be - Clive Owen and Hugh Jackman
are just a couple names that have been bandied about. So, how much longer
does Brosnan plan on sticking with the series? "It's a good question,
and it's one I think about from time to time," he admits. "I'd
like to get off the stage with grace. For these movies to work, any actor
who plays the part has to be courageous enough to go out there and push
the envelope physically. I'm honoring my contract here by doing this film
and, sure, I'd like to do another one, but after that, who knows?"
Listening to the actor speak, it sounds like he wouldn't regard it as
any major loss if he moved on with his career and left 007 in the dust.
"I am a working actor," he remarks, "a journeyman actor.
I just graft away at what I do. Bond has been a fantastic stepping stone
in my life."
For many actors, Bond would be the pre-eminent opportunity. For Pierce
Brosnan, a "journeyman" actor with a lot left to achieve, 007
is just another opportunity to create a solid character.
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It seems like whenever you hear about Halle Berry these days,
the reporter always dwells on how perfect she is: how she's the most beautiful
woman on the planet; how she feels so passionately about her pioneering
efforts as an Oscar winning black actress; how she's so nice to everyone
she meets, and on and on. It's almost too good to be true; even Mother
Theresa didn't have this kind of spin. Recently I met Berry for the first
time, to discuss her role in the new James Bond film Die Another Day,
and I was naturally skeptical. As I hung around a room, awaiting her arrival,
I peaked out into the hallway expecting to see her curse out an assistant,
or throw a bottle of water across the room because it wasn't her brand.
But it never happened.
Halle walked in, dressed in an attractive but comfortable looking outfit,
her shirt unbuttoned enough to show a little bit of that cleavage that
she reportedly was paid half a million dollars to show a lot more of in
Swordfish. She flashed a big smile at me, and I put an imaginary
pen to my mental notebook. Beautiful woman: check.
Berry plays an American spy in the Bond film, a real polecat named Jinx.
"In one of the early, early drafts, Jinx was supposed to be the villain,"
Berry reveals. "I would have been happy to play the villain, but
I was pleasantly surprised that it took a change. Just so long as Jinx
stayed tough and strong, that's all that mattered."
Every actor from every movie tells the press that he/she loved the character
they played in a film. Halle Berry, however, either genuinely means it
or is the queen of self-delusion. I enjoy being a Bond Girl! She exclaims.
"I like Jinx. Shes really strong, and I like the fact that shes
the next step in the evolution of the Bond woman. Year after year theyve
gotten a little stronger, a little smarter, and more equal with Bond,
while still retaining their sexiness. Now they are his intellectual equals
and physical rivals and Jinx is one more step in that evolution."
As anyone who saw her Oscar speech last year could tell you, when Berry
gets excited her effervescence manifests itself by the increasing speed
with which she talks. Clearly, talking about Jinx brings about this excitement:
"Jinx is really sexy. Super feminine, very witty, as quick as Bond
with the comeback lines and as tough as nails. Thats the most empowered
woman to me someone who can be sexy and tough at the same time. Jinx
has many layers to her character and theyve been enormous fun to play
around with."
One of the biggest entertainment stories to emerge over the past few
weeks is that the Bond producers have been giving serious consideration
to spinning Jinx off into her own series of films. If this were to happen,
it would be the first time it had ever been done in the storied history
of the franchise. Halle answers this rumor with (big surprise) excitement:
"Would I be a Jane Bond? If I could continue playing Jinx, continue
with this character, I would do it in a heartbeat. I love working for
them [the Bond people], and being a female action hero is a big step for
women in the movies."
Berry speaks quite frequently about her responsibilities, both as an
actress and as a black woman. She is clearly honored that people see her
as a trailblazer, but she's modest as well. "My (Oscar) isn't going
to open up the doors for every African-American," she observes. "That's
just one moment, and this is an industry that's been dealing with racism
since it's inception. One black woman finally wins, that doesn't change
everything. But hopefully it inspired people of color. Where many of them
may have been thinking of quitting, maybe now they have a renewed zest
for the industry and a desire to work harder. That night it happened for
two people of color. This is one more step for us. A big step, but a step
nonetheless." Okay, breaking out that mental checklist again - passion
for black and women's causes: check.
Speaking of Oscar, how different has her life been in the months since
her victory? "In some ways," she says, "my life hasn't
changed at all since I won. In others, it has changed more than I could
have imagined. I think it will be years before I fully realize the changes
that have taken place. The biggest change, career wise, is that I have
never before had five projects in development simultaneously." Laughing,
she exclaims, "I've got jobs now! I'm swamped for the next two years."
There are a lot of accomplished actors in Die Another Day - Pierce
Brosnan, Judi Dench, John Cleese, Michael Madsen - and some relative newbies
too in Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune and Toby Stephens. Berry says she enjoyed
fitting in with such a diverse group. "Well, Pierce, you know, he
was very gracious," she says of her leading man. "Very much
the kind of guy that sets a positive tone for the making of the movie.
Being Bond, being Pierce, he has the power to set the tone, and he made
it very comfortable for everyone. When it was our moment to shine, he
was generous and gave us all his attention."
There's one day, in particular, that she remembers really feeling welcomed
by everyone. "The day after I won the Oscar was the day I shot the
scene strapped down with the laser. Smiling, she remembers that, "initially
I felt sad that I had to go right back to work and not enjoy it with my
family. But when I got to the set everyone was so happy, it was like I
was going home. The gifts and the champagne and the balloons and the hugs
and the love. When I saw Judi Dench she said 'Good job. Well done,' and
that meant so much to me."
But not everything ran smoothly on the set. During the filming of her
love scene, a tragedy was averted thanks to some real-life Brosnan heroics.
"Pierce saved me from choking on the fig. He really did." As
she remembers it, "I was probably trying to be way too sexy for my
own good in our love scene and it got stuck in my throat. Pierce thought
very quickly and he jumped up and hit it free. Fig was projecting out
of my mouth suddenly. I hadn't been getting any air, I wasn't coughing,
nothing was happening."
Most people would probably be embarrassed if they choked during a love
scene, but not her. "When you're choking, I don't think you care
about being embarrassed, I could have been butt boogie naked and it wouldn't
matter. It was about getting air at that point!"
So, her Bond castmates keep her happy, gave her gifts, and even performed
first aid when necessary. I asked her how this compared to her experience
on the X-Men sets, and I got a surprising answer. Berry seems tired
of the X-Men franchise, especially now that her star has grown
so much over the last few years.
"With Jinx," she says "I get to do a lot more. In the
Bond world I get to fight, I get to use weapons, I get to really be an
equal. With the X-Men I'm part of such a large ensemble, and it's
only gotten larger with the sequel, so I don't get to do as much."
The fact that they've cut back on her screen time is surprising, I remarked,
because even in the original X-Men her character of Storm wasn't
in the top five superheroes, as far as lines were concerned. "Tell
me about it," she says with some disgust. But wouldn't it make more
sense to bulk up her screen time now that she's such a box-office draw?
"I think they may have initially tried that for the sequel, but there's
just so many characters to deal with. All the people from the first film,
plus five new ones. It's very much an ensemble."
So, I asked, do we learn anything substantial about her character in
X2? "You don't really get inside the mind of Storm in this
movie," she shrugs. "You don't get to find out where she comes
from or what makes her tick." How about the origins of the character
- anything about that? She shakes her head no.
Halle says that she thinks it's strange that they didn't use Storm more
in the first film. With the ability to control the weather, it could be
argued that she's the most powerful of the X-Men." I do think they
should use her powers more," she says, "Definitely." After
X2, Berry isn't signed to do any more sequels, and when I asked
her whether this might be her last appearance in the series, she shook
her head yes. "Contractually, yup. I don't have to come back. If
I was to come back, I would like to see Storm's role beefed up substantially."
She does have a very full plate right now, so there might not even be
room for an X-Men 3. "I want to do the Foxy Brown project
for MGM," she says when asked about her upcoming plans. "I want
to do a small project called October Squall that is really heavy
and weighty like Monster's Ball but with different issues. I want
to try my hand at romantic comedy, I've never really done that."
It seems that a woman like Halle Berry could be pretty much anything
she puts her mind to - a superhero, a spy, a blaxploitation star or a
romantic lead. I was actually struck by her sincerity and kindness during
the interview junket, a process most actors despise. Nice to everyone
she meets - I guess I can mark that one off on my checklist too. Everything
you've ever heard about the woman is exactly as advertised.
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