The Matador is one of the funniest pictures of the year and it will definitely make my top five. It just doesnt get better than a hitman [Pierce Brosnan] who has a nervous breakdown during his latest gig and hightails it to Denver to hook up with a salesman [Greg Kinnear] he met in Mexico City.
Pierce Brosnan is just as charming, playful and fun in person as he is in his films. He came into the room with Colonel Sanders like facial hair and invited us all to make fun of him. But I figured How can a white guy from Long Island, like me, possibly make fun of James Bond? It just doesnt compute.
Check out the official site for The Matador
Daniel Robert Epstein: Is your extreme facial hair for a movie?
Pierce Brosnan: It is for a movie called Seraphim Falls starring Liam Neeson and myself. A young director named David Von Ancken has written it. It is a post-Civil War western and I play a captain from the Union army. Liam plays a colonel from the South. John Toll is the director of photography and it is very beautiful though I play a very nasty character.
DRE: How did The Matador come about?
PB: It had an organic life. It came easy and was very rich because of Richards storytelling and writing. I think it was such a free flow of uncensored consciousness because he thought it was never going to be made. To actually play it felt very natural. Even though I had said yes to it, I also jumped ship one weekend. I had crisis of confidence in myself and the role. I thought I cant do this. This is going to be outrageous. They all listened to me with resentment, anger and sadness. We went back to the text and did a few tweaks here and there and we set sail on it. Then I just felt great doing it. Hope Davis came in then Greg [Kinnear]. Then I gave it to [director of photography] David Tattersall, who I had worked with on the last Bond movie and he said yes. Then we were off to Mexico City.
DRE: How was it to play a character who has no social restraints?
PB: Julian is the ultimate vulgarian and to be able to play with no restraints and go sexually and verbally wherever you want to go gives you great many choices.
DRE: Did it feel like a risky move?
PB: Yeah, there was a risk factor involved because I didnt want to be an embarrassment. The movie beings with the guy getting out of bed and painting his toenails. When you make a sharp left turn, you just hope for the best.
DRE: I mustve read a dozen articles where the character is a called a bisexual hitman. He doesnt identify himself as bisexual nor was it played that way except when he made a couple of comments. Where does that come from?
PB: There was a certain amount of filleting done, but not much. There was much more than we let go out there. He is bisexual. He just shagged everything. Man, beast, women, whatever.
DRE: Did you want moviegoers to like this character?
PB: Its a razors edge. The trick with dark comedies is to bring the audience in and then push them away. But you dont want to leave them out there in the cold. I thought there was enough vulnerability and compassion there to let audiences relate. The characters last name is Noble and he finds his nobleness in the end. You feel that hes going to go off to Greece with lovely little Greeks to have a grand time.
DRE: How familiar were you bullfighting?
PB: Ive never seen one and I dont want to. But I love the mythology of it. I think in history and in writing and in painting it permeates deeply. I thought Richards imagery and cleverness in combining the characters with bullfighting had a lovely lyricism, poetry and sensuality.
DRE: Have any of your previous roles prepared you for this?
PB: My first film was The Long Good Friday and I played an IRA hitman. I played a Russian hitman for the same director in The Fourth Protocol. Theres something wild about the fact for a certain number of bucks you can have someone taken out.
DRE: How was the scene with the Speedos?
PB: Ive got them on right now. Theyre a little tight [laughs]. Richard actually wrote it that he walked through the lobby in his underwear.
DRE: Were the Speedos a better look?
PB: I dont know. I thought they made me look as good as I could possibly look on the day.
DRE: How was shooting in Mexico City?
PB: We were all apprehensive of Mexico City but when we got there we became a tight tribe of people. It was a small cast so everybody was in the same hotel.
DRE: Did you have guards?
PB: There were guards. I thought it was unnecessary but then the first week the guy who was running the SUV company walked out the studio and got pulled into a car. They took his money and they got him back. One of the guys in the wardrobe department got into the wrong taxi and got smashed up.
DRE: As youve said, youve played a lot of killers, for any of your research did you ever meet anyone whos job it was to kill people?
PB: I was in Croatia and we were all out drinking one night and I met a sniper. He talked about killing men, women and children. We talked about the grief and sadness thats comes along with that especially since he has his own wife and children but he had to keep going. He had to keep killing. That was the closest Ive ever come.
DRE: That sounds like something that came into play for this role.
PB: It came into play yeah. Theres a friend of mine who is a high-ranking officer in the LAPD. I asked him to read the text and he gave me an analysis of the world of the psychopath, the men who kill. They are the greatest actors charming, wonderful, narcissistic, cruel, relentless in their ways. They kind of shield themselves from the actual death and killing.
DRE: Theres been buzz you might get an Academy Award nomination for this.
PB: Its something that as an actor, you sit back and think Well, someday maybe Ill find a role or find a piece and Ill just nail it. But who knows? Itd be great. Id love to be up there.
DRE: Your character is quite tragic under the humor. Did you think of this as a comedy?
PB: I saw it more as a more tragedy. He is mournful, sad and remorseful but he never gives up trying to get out of his dire straits. But since he is very funny he is somebody youd actually like to be with.
DRE: What else is coming up?
PB: Were trying to do another Thomas Crown and weve got the locations picked.
DRE: With John McTiernan again?
PB: We dont know. We just have the bones of the script.
DRE: What do you think of the casting of Daniel Craig as James Bond?
PB: I thought it was great casting because hes a fantastic actor.
DRE: When you did Bond, did you ever think in terms of him being a sad and lonely person?
PB: Yeah, I thought he was. When you look at Flemings work, its there on the page. The martinis. The cigarettes. The casino. The blood on the hands. But they never went there. Hopefully theyll go there with Daniel.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Pierce Brosnan is just as charming, playful and fun in person as he is in his films. He came into the room with Colonel Sanders like facial hair and invited us all to make fun of him. But I figured How can a white guy from Long Island, like me, possibly make fun of James Bond? It just doesnt compute.
Check out the official site for The Matador
Daniel Robert Epstein: Is your extreme facial hair for a movie?
Pierce Brosnan: It is for a movie called Seraphim Falls starring Liam Neeson and myself. A young director named David Von Ancken has written it. It is a post-Civil War western and I play a captain from the Union army. Liam plays a colonel from the South. John Toll is the director of photography and it is very beautiful though I play a very nasty character.
DRE: How did The Matador come about?
PB: It had an organic life. It came easy and was very rich because of Richards storytelling and writing. I think it was such a free flow of uncensored consciousness because he thought it was never going to be made. To actually play it felt very natural. Even though I had said yes to it, I also jumped ship one weekend. I had crisis of confidence in myself and the role. I thought I cant do this. This is going to be outrageous. They all listened to me with resentment, anger and sadness. We went back to the text and did a few tweaks here and there and we set sail on it. Then I just felt great doing it. Hope Davis came in then Greg [Kinnear]. Then I gave it to [director of photography] David Tattersall, who I had worked with on the last Bond movie and he said yes. Then we were off to Mexico City.
DRE: How was it to play a character who has no social restraints?
PB: Julian is the ultimate vulgarian and to be able to play with no restraints and go sexually and verbally wherever you want to go gives you great many choices.
DRE: Did it feel like a risky move?
PB: Yeah, there was a risk factor involved because I didnt want to be an embarrassment. The movie beings with the guy getting out of bed and painting his toenails. When you make a sharp left turn, you just hope for the best.
DRE: I mustve read a dozen articles where the character is a called a bisexual hitman. He doesnt identify himself as bisexual nor was it played that way except when he made a couple of comments. Where does that come from?
PB: There was a certain amount of filleting done, but not much. There was much more than we let go out there. He is bisexual. He just shagged everything. Man, beast, women, whatever.
DRE: Did you want moviegoers to like this character?
PB: Its a razors edge. The trick with dark comedies is to bring the audience in and then push them away. But you dont want to leave them out there in the cold. I thought there was enough vulnerability and compassion there to let audiences relate. The characters last name is Noble and he finds his nobleness in the end. You feel that hes going to go off to Greece with lovely little Greeks to have a grand time.
DRE: How familiar were you bullfighting?
PB: Ive never seen one and I dont want to. But I love the mythology of it. I think in history and in writing and in painting it permeates deeply. I thought Richards imagery and cleverness in combining the characters with bullfighting had a lovely lyricism, poetry and sensuality.
DRE: Have any of your previous roles prepared you for this?
PB: My first film was The Long Good Friday and I played an IRA hitman. I played a Russian hitman for the same director in The Fourth Protocol. Theres something wild about the fact for a certain number of bucks you can have someone taken out.
DRE: How was the scene with the Speedos?
PB: Ive got them on right now. Theyre a little tight [laughs]. Richard actually wrote it that he walked through the lobby in his underwear.
DRE: Were the Speedos a better look?
PB: I dont know. I thought they made me look as good as I could possibly look on the day.
DRE: How was shooting in Mexico City?
PB: We were all apprehensive of Mexico City but when we got there we became a tight tribe of people. It was a small cast so everybody was in the same hotel.
DRE: Did you have guards?
PB: There were guards. I thought it was unnecessary but then the first week the guy who was running the SUV company walked out the studio and got pulled into a car. They took his money and they got him back. One of the guys in the wardrobe department got into the wrong taxi and got smashed up.
DRE: As youve said, youve played a lot of killers, for any of your research did you ever meet anyone whos job it was to kill people?
PB: I was in Croatia and we were all out drinking one night and I met a sniper. He talked about killing men, women and children. We talked about the grief and sadness thats comes along with that especially since he has his own wife and children but he had to keep going. He had to keep killing. That was the closest Ive ever come.
DRE: That sounds like something that came into play for this role.
PB: It came into play yeah. Theres a friend of mine who is a high-ranking officer in the LAPD. I asked him to read the text and he gave me an analysis of the world of the psychopath, the men who kill. They are the greatest actors charming, wonderful, narcissistic, cruel, relentless in their ways. They kind of shield themselves from the actual death and killing.
DRE: Theres been buzz you might get an Academy Award nomination for this.
PB: Its something that as an actor, you sit back and think Well, someday maybe Ill find a role or find a piece and Ill just nail it. But who knows? Itd be great. Id love to be up there.
DRE: Your character is quite tragic under the humor. Did you think of this as a comedy?
PB: I saw it more as a more tragedy. He is mournful, sad and remorseful but he never gives up trying to get out of his dire straits. But since he is very funny he is somebody youd actually like to be with.
DRE: What else is coming up?
PB: Were trying to do another Thomas Crown and weve got the locations picked.
DRE: With John McTiernan again?
PB: We dont know. We just have the bones of the script.
DRE: What do you think of the casting of Daniel Craig as James Bond?
PB: I thought it was great casting because hes a fantastic actor.
DRE: When you did Bond, did you ever think in terms of him being a sad and lonely person?
PB: Yeah, I thought he was. When you look at Flemings work, its there on the page. The martinis. The cigarettes. The casino. The blood on the hands. But they never went there. Hopefully theyll go there with Daniel.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
jena:
I love his wife.
rayraythemanape:
I've met this guy. He's a dick!