Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

When most people think of Irishman Pierce Brosnan, the same adjectives come to mind, roguishly handsome, elegant, dashing, charming. He first perfected his familiar archetype as the titular lead on the 1980′s detective romantic comedy TV series, Remington Steele.

After a string of early Hollywood roles in films like Mrs. Doubtfire and Mars Attacks, Brosnan landed huge international prominence as the title character in the legendary James Bond franchise from 1995's GoldenEye to 2002's Die Another Day. However, he's fared well apart from Bond in successful films like The Thomas Crown Affair, The Matador, The Laws Of Attraction, and Mamma Mia!.

Now the usually charming 56 year-old actor is set to play his most antithetical character yet as embattled ex-British prime minister Adam Lang in the political thriller The Ghost Writer. Brosnan first shared with us his excitement over not only doing the role, but working with the film's Oscar-winning director, the legendary and controversial Roman Polanski.

"First of all, when I got the invitation to be a part of The Ghost Writer, as it's now known by Mr. Roman Polanski, my interest level was very piqued," Pierce recalls, "I thought I was very excited and pleased to get such an offer from Mr. Roman Polanski. And then, when I sat with him across the table for lunch one day, my first question was am I playing Tony Blair. Because all the indication and all the roads seem to lead to one man only and he said, 'No, you're not playing Tony Blair. However, I have to start somewhere as an actor and I looked at the performance of Tony Blair as Prime Minister. I looked at Tony Blair in public interviews and I was liberated somewhat by Roman saying, I'm not playing him. So where does that leave me? Well, you go back to the text of Robert Harris in the pages of his novel. And here is a man that comes from Cambridge, he comes down,

Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

he's an actor, he becomes a politician, a populist."

"So I then go back to me as an actor playing an actor playing a politician and so it goes," he adds, " Then you have to find the emotion of the piece and I look at the relationship with my wife, played by Olivia Williams. Then, I began to look at her character and it's somewhat like Lady MacBeth. None of this was spoken over with Roman. None of this was spoken over with Olivia Williams. All of this was just imagination and the ambience that Roman creates on a set. And as the piece, as I worked on the piece, in the weather that's all prevailing in Polanski movies, it certainly prevails as a shroud of gloom and foreboding in this film. That gives you a certain sense of a lowness, exile, you begin to look at the movies of Polanski from Knife In The Water, Repulsion, The Claustrophobic, Ménage à Trois. All of these give you a character and for me, then, it was something like a Jacobyian tragedy or a Shakespearean drama. And with all of those bits of ingredients, you step forth and give it best effort and you get a lot for nothing, the stuff you get, your character is giving you, your performance has given you by the whole structure of the piece."

Pierce, then, described for us the experience of working with Polanski, who's legendary films range from Rosemary's Baby to Macbeth to Chinatown to Tess to The Pianist.

"Very intense fellow, very passionate man, very intelligent, and very erudite, I had the greatest time working with him," he recalls, "He's a taskmaster. You want to do the best for the guy. I think the actors, Olivia Williams and myself, those were the actors that I was closest this, and Kim Cattrall. We all felt a sense of electricity everyday on this set because he's so specific and so demanding

Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

on everybody who's participating on the day's work. The lens is always close to his hand. He has a viewfinder that"¦I was sitting there one day and I looked at it. It was this ancient piece of antiquity, it seemed, that it was burnished by time, all the numbers had worn off it. That's the lens he has around his neck or close at hand in his pocket."

"So he was always figuring out the shot and what the emotion of the actors are giving in the space of the room and on the landscape," Brosnan continues, "So he has this sometimes, dare I say it, a franticness to his energy and to his passion and he's trying to capture that spontaneity of performance with the lens. So you have to be on your toes. And then, when the curtain comes down at the end of the day, there's a very charming man who sits to have drinks and a bite to eat and talk of family, talk of love, he was kind of mischievous and all, that's in his filming, sense of humor, irony, and the twist of an Irishman playing the ex-British Prime Minister, the ex-James Bond, you know (laughing). I love it! I thought it was very ironic and clever and delicious, because it's not an obvious choice."

The Ghost Writer got a bit of unwanted, negative publicity. Polanski's arrest in Zurich, Switzerland has occurred in the midst of The Ghost Writer's post-production. The arrest, back in September of last year, was to extradite the director stemming from his controversial flight from the U.S. to France after he had pleaded guilty to committing statutory rape on a then-13 year-old girl back in 1977. We wondered whether Brosnan believed the film's touching on extradition held any personal significance on Polanski directing the film.

"Well, you kind of go to the isolation of my character, who's an ex-British Prime Minister living in exile here on an island,"

Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

he believes, "The reference to Napoleon in the life that he's led and looking over the shoulder and constantly in motion from the ghettos of Warsaw to the films that he makes, the films that he has made that all have the theme of isolation and claustrophobia and certainly an all-encompassing foreboding atmosphere of life."

"I started reading his biography when I set forth with this film, but I had to put it down," Pierce adds, "I knew as enough as I wanted to know and I really wanted to just come to the man on my own terms on the stage. So he uses himself constantly, he uses his life and his instincts, his persona of drama in life and his intelligence of drama defines a material in which he can chew the bone on."

We wondered whether the isolation of filming on the island of Sylt, near to Germany, gave the actors a sense of camaraderie during shooting.

"There wasn't much to do there, but we weren't there for that length of time, really," Brosnan says, "I really like the melancholic atmosphere, something to do with being Irish, I suppose, maybe, I don't know, but I really enjoyed it. Then, of course, we had Berlin."

"Berlin is such a brilliant city and I have friends there who are artists," he adds, "So I very much enjoyed my time on the movie. I wasn't there from day one like Ewan [McGregor] was, so I dipped in and dipped out, so I had the luxury of that. But I know Ewan's had such a mighty experience, working very closely with Roman."

Pierce shared with us what believes are the essential tools for a classic political thriller.

"In the case of this movie, The Ghost Writer, it finds itself front row and center in political time and political character, who is eluded to in the case of Mr. Tony Blair," he believes, "You have a cinematic director who has done many thrillers

Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

and this is his first political thriller. So and you have him taking shots at and eluded to Hitchcock, who was the grand master of his own time and created his own world of drama and intrigue and the subtleties of life. On the stage, the most humblest of player becomes essential to something which could be quite malevolent. And in the case of The Ghost Writer, the man who's constantly sweeping the leaves up, the leaves are all being blown away, but he has some significance doing this sweeping the leaves up."

"That's in The Ghost Writer and that's as good as it gets," Brosnan continues, "We haven't had that many political dramas of late that I can think of that comes with such a punch as this one, because of the director, because of its timing, because of the huge what if of this story, and this time that we've lived through politically is so charged and so many huge question marks and still hang above us, the whys of the war and the towers that were destroyed and the lives that were lost and the huge rush towards the political future we now find ourselves with. So, artistically, these questions will resonate for quite some time now in films."

As an actor known for doing many different accents, we also wondered how much Pierce believes in the accent being significant to how he shapes his performances.

"I love being an actor and you just try to stay on the table as long as you can and keep doing good work," Brosnan believes, "The voice is someplace. I've always seen myself as a character actor, but Remington Steele was me. I gave up on trying to being any character and I just put myself as me in this world of Remington Steele and The Grand Pretender. At times, I have found pieces that are character-driven, very much character-driven, they all should be character-driven, but now at

Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

this point in my life, I'm finding more character and a sense of being an actor and being a performer and be challenged and take risks."

"The voice of this character that I play, because I've always been very aware I was living in England as an Irishman," he continues, "And growing up and having been taught as an Irishman, I was aware of my voice and how far I can go as a young actor and they could have easily gotten and always did get someone that really had that strong English accent. But thank God for America. I came here and found great, great home and possibilities were endless. So the voice, I got a piece right now where I'm trying to figure it out and I've moved all over the map from Mississippi to Georgia to Australia to New Zealand, so I'll figure something out."

Brosnan believes that doing The Ghost Writer has reinforced for him how tough and often theatrical the world of politics really is, as a committed environmentalist.

"Well, you always bump into politics in life," he explains, "As a man, I'm party to a number of environmental issues that concern me first and foremost as a man, as a father. And so, when you step into that arena alone, you do bump into the sharp consequences of politics. Whether it'd be something like fighting for the old growth trees in California and going to Sacramento and trying to knock on the door of Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger and being rejected or being turned away, that's always a shock. Within that world of the environmental movement, there's political twists & turns constantly."

"As an actor, I don't see myself as a political creature and I think, as an actor also, if you have the presence and somewhat a voice as a man and you have some kind of sincerity for an issue, then speak up and lend your shoulder to the cause," Pierce

Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

adds, "But I certainly don't want to be a politician and I have now seen closely how they work and having rubbed shoulders with some very powerful people, you see the charisma and you see the performance. But I'm an actor, first and foremost. That is my job and that's how I make my living. And anything else that is eluded to politically is just trying to lend a helping hand to certain causes, whether it'd be women's health care issues or environmental issues."

We asked Pierce whether he believes The Ghost Writer will potentially cause controversy in Britain. This is in light of the striking similarity in situation to the country's real-life embattled former prime minister Tony Blair, who played a big hand in the controversial decision with former President George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq and whether Blair himself will see the film.

"To the best of my knowledge, I haven't heard any," Brosnan replies, "It remains to be seen what will be said. And as the film garners more recognition and is seen by the public, I'm sure it will be discussed. It will have its supporters and its detractors and it should. I think Mr. Blair will definitely have a look at this."

The Ghost Writer comes out right on the heels of another film Brosnan worked on, which was Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which is based on Rick Riordan's children's fantasy adventure book series. He discussed with us the disparate differences in his characters between the two films.

"It's just an accident, really, or not really an accident," Pierce claims, "It's just a confluence of time in these pictures. There's four films I'm on the road with. Here, Percy Jackson, The Ghost Writer, Remember Me, and my own film, The Greatest. And they all have their emotional impact on me as a man. Percy Jackson, for my children, because my boys love the books. And to

Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

go out and play Chiron, half-man, half-horse with a director who I did Mrs. Doubfire with. What a leap of faith that there is humor in that."

"There is humor in that from the audience point of view, who've seen my work as James Bond, then to go out as an entertainer to play a horse's ass," he adds, "Whether I am one remains to be seen, but I find humor in that. And, then, to step into the shoes of this role of prime minister, the other two roles of ones of fathers, both men grieving, lost a son. I know something about life and being a father and the worries and the fears of bringing up children. So there you have it. I've never had this situation. I guess it's for some reason, hopefully, its more employment. Old habits die hard. You're always looking down the road. It's a capricious old game. You think you're there, then you're not there."

Pierce's next film comes out only weeks away. He stars with Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson in the romantic drama Remember Me. He talks about how working with young actors has made him aware of how much the film industry has changed.

"Well, it's extremely youth-orientated now and the circle grows," Brosnan says, "These young performers are extremely talented and Logan Lerman, who is in Percy Jackson, has got great talents and intuition and great sensing as an actor, as does Mr. Robert Pattinson. And you can't help but feel, as an actor and as a father, a certain well-being for them because the industry now is so ferocious, it eats them up by the dozen, it seems."

"Everybody wants to look behind the curtain of their life and it has sharp edges to it, so it's not as pustule as it used to be for younger actors, I feel," he continues, "And you really got to be on your toes to who you are as a

Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

young actor, as a young person. But it's their climate, so they know what's going on, the good ones."

Another film that Brosnan says is still waiting on the wings is a sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair.

"We're still there," Pierce states, "It's on the desk and, for the first time in the last four years, we have a structure that seems sturdy and has some meaning, but it's he and she on the page that needs to be explored. It's not there at the moment."'

One project Pierce definitely believes is years down the road is his own autobiography.

"There have been a few articles and books and pieces, written without my consent, that have been written," he notes, "So I have started in the last few years, just ruminating on who I am, where I've been, what I've done. Some tapestry of a life lived. Yeah, there's headings. I start with a few headings here and there. Some of them are haikus of time and some of them have got a chapter maybe, I don't know. I'll stitch something together."

"[Writing] it will be my good wife," Brosnan adds, "She's a fine writer and I never thought about having a ghost writer, but I have been having come down the road 56 years and you kind of ruminate about life, especially when you get asked the question time and time again, you've lived a bit of time. It's dealing with the memory and then the embroidery of that memory and what is the truthfulness of it. So I've hit on a few which are kind of dark and just memories and they're very hard to face in the courage to tell them. If I do it, it'll maybe be a half-truth, with pictures, illustrations, drawings, I don't know, I have no idea."

One thing Brosnan says he wants to continue to do is act. With the enormous success of his James Bond films and others putting

Pierce Brosnan

"Not Blair, Tony Blair"

the ball more in his court in choosing films, he is crystal clear about what films he'd like to do post-James Bond.

"Something with an emotional heartbeat," he says, "Something which for me as a producer with Irish Dreamtime and my partnership with Beau Marie St. Clair, we've made about eight movies now. They all come through the filter of our relationship and she's has been a wonderful lady in my life and friend and she's extremely well-read and somehow knows what will work for me as an actor.

"When I look from The Nephew to The Greatest, the book ends there," Pierce continues, "And I suppose The Matador and Thomas Crown are the ones that have variety and to be an unexpected surprise. And that's just the constant need to work and be better and constant, I could do better. I always feel like I'm just beginning and I'm just beginning now, so that's exciting."