„I Was Just Kicked to the Kerb”. Pierce Brosnan Was Shocked When He Was Fired from His Role as James Bond, When He Himself Wanted to Remain Agent 007
Pierce Brosnan was surprised that he had to say goodbye to the role of James Bond when he was ready to appear in yet another film about Agent 007.
Pierce Brosnan was James Bond for seven years, playing the role of Agent 007 in four films: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. And he hoped to appear in one more film about Her Majesty's iconic agent. It was even planned to be released in 2004.
Unfortunately, those plans didn't pan out, and Pierce Brosnan had to say goodbye to James Bond. The news that the studio was not planning any more films with him came as quite a surprise to him, which he told during an interview for the book Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Film [via The Guardian].
I was in the Bahamas, working on a movie called After the Sunset and my agents called me up and said, “Negotiations have stopped. [Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson] are not quite sure what they want to do. They’ll call you next Thursday”. I sat in Richard Harris’s house in the Bahamas, and Barbara and Michael were on the line – “We’re so sorry”. She was crying, Michael was stoic and he said, “You were a great James Bond. Thank you very much”, and I said, “Thank you very much. Goodbye”. That was it. I was utterly shocked and just kicked to the kerb with the way it went down..
Apparently, it was then decided to take a new direction with the James Bond story, once again putting the role in the hands of someone else. After all, Agent 007 is not a role belonging only to one actor, every now and then a new actor takes it up and has a chance to breathe new life into the series. After Brosnan, Daniel Craig did it, and the films with him showed us Bond's adventures in a slightly different way.
