The spy thriller “The November Man,” out Wednesday, finds Pierce Brosnan playing an ex-CIA agent named Peter Devereaux, because Pierce Brosnan is apparently required by law to play characters with names as regal as his own.
The four-time James Bond and former “Sexiest Man Alive,” a title People magazine bestowed on him in 2001, has built a solid career playing suave men of adventure with names like Remington Steele, Julian Noble, Thomas Crown, and, of course, James Bond — men with a license to kill and a penchant for seduction.
When we speak to Brosnan — also an executive producer on the film through his production company, Irish DreamTime — by phone from LA, he sounds about as majestic as one might expect, as well as quite contemplative.
“I’ve just been sitting here, doing the dog and the pony of it all, as they say in the old country,” says Brosnan. “Sell, sell, sell. This is where you earn your money. It’s where you figure out what you’ve done, who you are, whether they like you.”
Of course, that audiences like him has long been confirmed, as the chants for him to become Bond began long before he took the role. For Brosnan, a life spent playing debonair secret agents has been the stuff of dreams.
“A man becomes what he dreams, I guess. I dreamt wisely,” he says, informing us that the line is a quote from his 1999 film,“Grey Owl.”
“But I love the genre. I grew up on it. Sean Connery, ‘Goldfinger.’”
It came and it went. I was there, and then I wasn’t. Some other dude was.
- Pierce Brosnan, on being People's 'Sexiest Man Alive' in 2001
Brosnan grew up in Ireland and London, and absorbed the work of macho men like Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Cary Grant and Marlon Brando, actors who worked at a time when movie stars were still regarded as celestial.
Brosnan was fascinated by “the mystique of the man, the mystique of the movie star, the mystique of the characters they played,” as well as the “wonderful effect” they had on movie audiences.
But while Brosnan came to embody these elements and the machismo that comes with them, his take on his characters resonates beyond just guns, girls and gadgets. While he loved the new film’s action elements and his character’s “somewhat detached and cultured badass ways,” he also mentions Devereaux’s “inner strength.”
His 2008 role in “Mamma Mia!” also whetted his appetite for variety.
“I suppose I’d like to do more comedy,” he says, when asked about possible roles in the future.
“I’d like to do a drama. But most of the time, the career has just unfurled before me like a lovely red carpet. The joy is not knowing what you’re going to do next, but knowing that you have a strong want and desire to work, and to create, and to try and be an unexpected surprise.”
Even so, when he’s home, he leaves the movie star at the door.
“I take the garbage out, do the dishes, and get on with my life. I keep it very simple,” he says.
And when the subject of Brosnan’s 2001 “Sexiest Man” honor comes up, he reveals a distinct lack of interest in the topic. “It’s all a joke — a merry, merry jest,” he says. “It came and it went. I was there, and then I wasn’t. Some other dude was.”