James Bond - Fired On The Phone
Posted by: Terri Knudsen
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Date: 21st August 2005

Last year the British superstar Pierce Brosnan got the boot as James Bond, after four movies as 007 since 1995. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Brosnan spills the beans on what really happened. "One single phonecall, that was all," he says, but he can't get into any details.

The producers had asked him to consider making movie number five when the negotiations were suddenly stopped. This came as a shock to Brosnan, but it didn't take long before he thought "F--- it! I can do anything I want to do now. I'm not beholden to them or anyone. I'm not shackled by some contracted image. So there was a sense of liberation."

Even though the 51-year-old actor got "amazing money" for playing the character every British male would like to be (read: handsome, gets to play with guns, gets all the babes), he claims he hated it. ''It never felt real to me. I never felt I had complete ownership over Bond. Because you'd have these stupid one-liners - which I loathed - and I always felt phony doing them. 'I'd look at myself in the suit and tie and think, What the heck am I doing here?''

I may be wrong and everything, but something about the way he says things screams of "hurt male ego" to me. And where are the beans? Cos if he spilled them, they must have rolled straight over my head or something. OK, so he was fired over the phone. Let's face it, what we really want to know is, why was he fired? Do they want someone younger? But look at the evidence here, Sean Connery was 53 when he made his last Bond movie, "Never Say Never Again". Timothy Dalton was 45 when he made "License to Kill" and Roger Moore was a staggering 58 when he did "A View To A Kill". So my guess is, it wasn't that. And it's not like Pierce is in bad shape or anything. I guess we'll never know. Until his autobiography surfaces. Like it always does.

Now the question is, who will become the next international man of mystery? Since Hugh Jackman turned down the offer, there have been several rumours, including Rikki Lee Travolta, (read about that here) Ewan McGregor, Clive Owen, Colin Salmon, Daniel Craig, Hugh Grant and even Robbie Williams.

Ewan is at least Scottish like the original Bond (read: Connery), but he'd probably have to buff up a bit and make us forget his softer-than-soft image in, say, Moulin Rouge. Hugh Grant? I'm not entirely sure that "excuse me, could I please ask you to kindly put your hands over your head, Sir?" would work in a heated situation between 007 and some crook. Robbie Williams? James Bond with a Stoke-on-Trent accent, who'll probably serenade both Moneypenny and every other female that comes along? There's a fine line between James Bond and The Singing Detective...

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