Pierce Brosnan: Keeping James Bond Relevant

Following up the first part of a retrospective of Pierce Brosnan’s Tomorrow Never Dies, Voices From Krypton has now posted the second half of an audio interview with the James Bond star.

Taking place in late 1997, interviewer Ed Gross had the opportunity to speak with Brosnan just as he was about to embark upon a massive press and publicity tour for the then-upcoming 18th official 007 film, Tomorrow Never Dies.

Tomorrow Never Dies

In this section of the interview, Brosnan stressed the importance of he film’s focus on the power of the media and how this was integral to keeping Bond relevant today.

He said: ‘The question over and over again is now that the Cold War is over, what is James Bond going to do? Well, we’ve still got MI6/MI5 and Russia still has some semblance of whatever they’ve got over there … you know, countries still have secrets. So, I think Bond is still relevant in regards to world events.’

Nowhere is the media more noticeable in Tomorrow Never Dies than in its lead villain, the eccentric Elliot Carver. Commenting on the charater, Brosnan said: ‘When you have someone as charismatic and flamboyant as Jonathan Pryce playing this Ted Turner-Rupert Murdoch character to create World War III, I think it’s a great hoot and also quite real. He has his own personal agenda. He wants to get rich. He wants to rule his own empire. He’s enamored with power.’

Brosnan also discussed his wish to give a more indepth backstory to Paris Carver, portrayed by Teri Hatcher.

‘I’d asked at the beginning that if we could have a woman that was meaningful to [Bond] and not just someone he picks up in the movie and doesn’t know, but someone from his past. So they took that and it came in the package of Teri Hatcher, who is very good in the movie. She’s the old flame. A woman that he really loved, but she got too close … there’s an emotional chord there that has a resonance throughout the piece. Which is good. If we go again on a [third film], I’d like to see it continue. Just more character.’

There’s much more… Head over to Voices From Krypton for the complete interview, including Brosnan’s idea for different genre Bond films (Horror Bond, Science-fiction Bond, etc.), the possibilities of Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino directing 007 and adapting Casino Royale as a low-budget character study.

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