Interview | John Millar

Pierce Brosnan surrendered the role of James Bond but came out fighting. But who could have guessed that his new creative outlet would be singing Abba songs? voyager met the actor as he awaited this month’s movie release of Mamma Mia!

PIERCE BROSNAN IS in the process of reinventing himself, with a little help from Abba. He can’t be who he used to be any more – “The name is Bond; James Bond” – and the way he tells it, maybe Brosnan was never quite who the public thought he was. “I was getting away with looking like Mr Sleek and Mr Suave and it paid the rent for a while and it was good,” he admits frankly. But for someone who has been confused in the public eye with his character of a super-smooth international super-spy, he seems more of a gentle character whose life has been touched by tragedy.

It was in the 1980s that as a relatively unknown actor Brosnan first tasted international success, as the eponymous star of television’s Remington Steele, a slick private detective which saw him being compared to Roger Moore, foreshadowing his future. The Bond movie franchise was in danger of becoming stagnant until the elegant Irishman took on the iconic role. With the blockbusters Goldeneye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002), he injected new life into the 007 brand.

And since the mantle of Bond was passed to Daniel Craig with Casino Royale (2006), Brosnan, 55, has also proved there is life beyond the high-octane world of the big screen’s best known secret agent by reminding us of his versatility as an actor. His diverse – if less high-profile – new roles have ranged from a hit-man in the black comedy The Matador (2005) to a haunted and hunted remnant of the American Civil War in Seraphim Falls (2006).

Even those who were aware of Brosnan’s talents must have been surprised by the revelation that he was to tackle some of the greatest pop songs in Mamma Mia!, the movie adaptation of the stage musical incorporating the songs of Abba. It first hit London’s West End almost a decade ago – conceived as a showcase for the enduringly popular Abba back catalogue – and has been a global hit.

While Abba fan Brosnan and his family had been to see it on the stage, could he actually sing its numbers for a movie version? The public will find out this month when it hits cinemas, with Brosnan playing Sam Carmichael, one of three men who might be the father of the main character, teenage bride-to-be Sophie (Amanda Seyfried).

Brosnan had warbled some Irish melodies in the tender family drama Evelyn (2002), and his drama school grounding ensured that he had always believed that he could play lots of different characters. But Mamma Mia! is the first time on screen that the actor has really burst into song to deliver pop classics.

In the course of filming, Brosnan found himself in the studio to sing with Abba stars Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. “They couldn’t have been more gracious and welcoming,” he remembers. “They are charming, beautiful guys.” It was made easier by the fact that the other members of the all-star cast of Mamma Mia! – which includes Oscar legend Meryl Streep, British national treasure Julie Walters, posh heartthrob Colin Firth and Good Will Hunting star Stellan Skarsgård – were not exactly renowned for their singing prowess either. “It helped enormously with my fear and anxiety when I looked over at Colin and Stellan and saw them looking terrified,” says Brosnan. “We were like deer in the headlights – three thespians about to sing Abba.” Something that made it a little more familiar for Brosnan was that scenes were shot on the same giant sound stage at Pinewood Studios that had been used for 007.

The songs that Brosnan performs in Mamma Mia! include When All Is Said And Done and S.O.S., which he shares with Meryl Streep. These are numbers which obviously mean a lot to Abba’s hordes of fans and which Brosnan reckons will have terrific power on the movie screen.

“The song When All Is Said And Done is from the album The Visitors, which some people consider Abba’s greatest album. It’s when they were kind of splitting up and their lives were going in different directions,” he explains of the Swedish quartet’s final 1981 release. “So the song has words that are very powerful and meaningful.”

If he had any doubts about becoming involved in this movie musical, they were kicked into touch from the moment that Brosnan knew he would be working with Meryl Streep. While she is more famous for her roles in darker films such as The Deer Hunter (1978), (though recently her appearance in the fashion black comedy The Devil Wears Prada also won her plaudits), Brosnan was bowled over by her performance in the musical.

“Seeing Meryl Streep and hearing her sing The Winner Takes It All will never, never be forgotten,” he insists.

If Brosnan doesn’t seem embarrassed at switching from having a licence to kill to having a licence to sing pop, it’s because, quite simply, he isn’t. The sort of things that really made him blush were topping the glossy magazine lists of ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ or ‘Most Beautiful People In The World’ when he was Bond. That said, he admits to working hard at maintaining his appearance: “I try to live a fairly clean life. I do yoga. I ride the bike, I do weights and swim. I do whatever it takes. So I work at staying in shape: that’s the bottom line. I do it for my job. It’s what my profession is about. Anyone who is worth his or her salt as an actor should try and keep some discipline.”

This October will see the release of the new Bond movie, Quantum Of Solace, the second with younger actor Daniel Craig as the hero. As has been well documented, Bond’s producers decided to drop Brosnan for Craig, who made his debut as 007 about 18 months ago. Press coverage at the time he lost the Bond crown would have it that Brosnan was dismayed, even angry. Perhaps unsurprisingly he says he’s philosophical: the chapter ended and it was time to move on. “I wish Daniel Craig the greatest happiness and success,” he insists, attempting to draw a line under the rumours. “He is a wonderful actor.”

If it is without bitterness or rancour when Brosnan refers to the end of his Bond era that is because he is someone who knows that there are much more important things in life than movies. He has had to come to terms with some of the cruellest elements of the human condition. Brosnan has known the real tragedy of losing a much-loved partner, when Cassandra Harris, his actress wife of 11 years, died of cancer in 1991. Brosnan describes Cassie, as he called her, as “forever embedded in every fibre of my being”.

Eventually, Brosnan was fortunate enough to find love again with American journalist and TV presenter Keely Shaye Smith with whom he will celebrate a seventh wedding anniversary this August. He and his second wife live in Malibu with their two sons, seven-year-old Paris and Dylan, 11. The other members of the family are Sean, now 24, the son he had with Cassandra; and the children from Cassandra’s first marriage, whom he adopted, Chris, 35, whose hard partying has been known to make headlines, and Charlotte, 37.

“I am a hands-on dad,” he says, adding that he took his turn at nappy changing and stressing that his family is the essence of his life. He doesn’t comment on the trouble his step-son Chris has occasionally been in with the law. “I love all my children equally,” is his preferred answer to the question.

Irish-born Brosnan, from Navan, County Meath, has spent most of his working life based in the USA and is refreshingly enthusiastic about how much he loves Hollywood and what it has done for him. “It’s a crazy old town. You have to know where you are with it and take it all with a pinch of salt. But I will be forever grateful to Hollywood for my career. It was going slowly nowhere in England. I had dreams and aspirations of doing movies and then I had the good fortune of coming here and getting a job on Remington Steele.”

During the Bond years Brosnan was anxious to spread his net into other film projects, such as Mars Attacks! (1996), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) and The Tailor Of Panama (2001), and he has continued to ring the changes and spring a few surprises with each film that has grabbed his imagination. Some of these films have also harkened back to his childhood fantasies. For instance, saddling up with fellow Irish actor Liam Neeson for Seraphim Falls was a dream come true because it reawakened memories of marvelling at movie westerns. “There are murky memories of black and white movies at the Palace Cinema in Navan,” he says. “But I suppose it was Clint Eastwood in The Man With No Name, A Fistful Of Dollars, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly that had the biggest wallop for me as a cinema-goer.”

He wishes he had plunged into more demanding, grittier roles, like those he had in The Matador and Seraphim Falls, a bit earlier in his career. “I should have challenged myself sooner. There has always been that nagging question of when was I going to find some dramas and good comedies and darker pieces.”

Apart from being allowed to spread his wings as a big-screen star, Brosnan has also been made some intriguing theatre offers. But right now that appears to be just a touch too daunting. “I don’t know about going back to the stage,” he says. “I’ve been invited a few times in Dublin, but it’s a bit scary.”

What is certain, however, is that Brosnan – who has his own production company, Irish DreamTime – retains the desire and energy for his screen craft. “I’m still passionate about it,” he says. “You have to have stamina if you are going to play this game and you are going to stay at it. If there is anything to tell a young actor it is keep your stamina going – emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, physically – because it is warfare out there.”