For Pierce Brosnan, the World Is Just Enough
On the last day of March, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, fans approached the actor Pierce Brosnan every few minutes. Some addressed him as Mr. Brosnan, some as Mr. Bond, a reference to the four James Bond movies he made in the 1990s and early 2000s. (Brosnan has a face that demands honorifics.)
Dressed in chic monochrome — navy trench, navy pants, a navy ascot at the neck of a navy shirt — he was gracious with them all, if lightly evasive. (And yes, he is the rare man who looks plausible in an ascot.) At 71, he doesn't often show the whole of himself. People see what they want. Mostly they see Bond.
'They miss a lot,' he said. 'But it's not up to me to show a lot. It's not up to me to do anything but be pleasant.'
There has always been more to Brosnan than meets the eye, although what meets the eye is obviously very nice. 'He is very fortunate in the genes department,' said Tom Hardy, his co-star on the new Paramount+ gangster series 'MobLand' said. Brosnan refers to it all as 'the Celtic alchemy.' Image Pierce Brosnan, center, with Helen Mirren and Anson Boon, plays a dapper killer in the new crime drama 'MobLand.' Credit... Luke Varley/Paramount+, via Associated Press
A longtime painter and art enthusiast, Brosnan counts 'The Thomas Crown Affair,' a 1999 art heist caper, as the favorite of his movies, mostly because he got to keep the paintings. So when promotional duties brought him to New York — he splits his time between Malibu and Hawaii — he squeezed in a museum visit.
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