Pierce Brosnan’s field of dreams

Pierce Brosnan ought to be exhausted but he’s still remarkably fresh and enthusiastic.

He’s spent the last year going from one starring role to another and he’s not finished yet.

After teaming up with Julianne Moore in Dublin for Laws of Attraction, a romantic comedy about divorce lawyers falling for each other, he has been in the Bahamas as a master thief, playing cat and mouse with FBI agent Woody Harrelson.

Now the star is in Mexico City for The Matador, a quirky affair where he is a professional hit man who befriends a very ordinary guy, played by Greg Kinnear.

Towards the latter part of the year, Pierce will turn his attention to Mexicali, a story of murder and kidnapping.

As he prepares to start filming The Matador, Pierce shrugs off the rather obvious fact that he has created a demanding work schedule for himself.

"This is my job and I love doing it," he says, while admitting that originally he hadn’t planned to be quite so busy.

The year had been planned around two productions for his film company – Irish Dream Time, which has already made movies like The Thomas Crown Affair and Evelyn.

"To begin with, I was doing Laws of Attraction and then The Matador," says Pierce. "It was just going to be in those films and then I got offered After The Sunset. I loved the script so I’m doing the three films back-to-back.

"By the time I wrap this up in eight weeks I’ll be looking forward, God willing, to going off to Hawaii and being with the family."

Reflecting on the round of films he has committed himself to, Pierce agrees the schedule is demanding. "It’s tough but exhilarating. People say, why do you work so much? But what else would I do?"

A bonus for Pierce, of course, is that so many projects headed by Irish DreamTime are making it on to the screen.

"We do seem to be making films," he says about the development of his company. "Laws of Attraction is coming out shortly and it’s a lovely film, an old fashioned romantic tip of the hat to Tracy and Hepburn, that genre of filmmaking.

"We made it in Ireland and it was a lovely summer making a film that was light and breezy and had something to say about grown-ups falling in love."

The plot of Laws of Attraction revolves around two top lawyers with different styles. She is a strictly by the book operator. He often flies by the seat of his pants. They find their wits pitted against one another when they are on opposing sides of a messy divorce case.

The case causes the legal eagles to fly to Dublin. Once in Ireland, they find that the mutual attraction that has been developing is growing stronger.

They are thrown together in a romantic Irish country. After a night of wild celebrating, they wake up to discover they are man and wife. When they go back to New York they have to continue with the divorce case in somewhat unusual circumstances.

For his role as a top lawyer, Pierce met up in New York with a tough Irish American lawyer. He says there are similarities between being an actor and an attorney. "They are both theatrical."

"It’s about how to cajole and charm people to win your case," says Pierce. "You are inviting and charming, turn on a dime and become lethal. My character is quite hard-nosed and manipulative."

What’s missing in the life of the lawyer Pierce plays in Laws of Attraction is the right woman. "He finds her in this lawyer who is so buttoned-down and stitched up in her own little world that she forgets to breathe and smell the roses. She meets her match in him and he meets his in her. He falls in love with her from the beginning and pursues her, without taking no for an answer."

Crucial to Laws of Attraction was the casting of Oscar nominee Julianne Moore as Pierce’s leading lady.

"Once we got her on board, I had my work cut out because she is one of America’s foremost actresses," he says.

"I was thrilled she wanted to do it," adds Pierce who notes that there was the same sort of screen chemistry with Julianne he enjoyed with Rene Russo in a previous Irish Dream Time production, The Thomas Crown Affair.

"It is interesting that both Rene and Julianne are red heads," he says.

Pierce also pays tribute to the influence of Laws of Attraction director Peter Howitt. "We had a great director in Peter who brought so much warmth to the piece. It had been a rather cynical matter before and you didn’t care for either character. But you have to care for them and you want to love and hate them. Ultimately, you want to embrace them. So Peter brought the script to fighting form."

In Mexico City, as he gets ready for filming The Matador, Pierce explains why this project got his creative juices bubbling. "It’s a black, quirky little comedy," he says. "The character I play does corporate hits and finds himself falling apart when he meets this very ordinary guy who becomes his only friend."

The variety offered by these very different films excites and energizes the 50-year-old Irish star. He can’t understand why some people wonder whether he might be taking a gamble by making movies that are smaller, with a lower budget than the Bond adventures that have made him a global sensation.

Since making his Bond debut in Golden Eye, Pierce has been a box office phenomenon as 007. Now though there are rumblings that suggest he might be passing on the mantle of the agent licensed to thrill to another actor.

Pierce says that if he has faced his final curtain as Bond, he has enjoyed the ride. "I was contracted for four films and that contract has now expired," he says. "I have enjoyed playing James Bond and was looking forward to doing a fifth and probably final one for me. I did the best I could and had a great time doing it. It allowed me to create my own company."

What happens next is in the hands of Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson. "They know where to find me should they want me to play the role again. It’s meant to be, so be it. But if it’s not meant to be, so be it too."

Away from the cameras, Pierce lives in Malibu with wife Keely Shaye Smith, with whom he has two sons, seven-year-old Dylan and three-year-old Paris. He was married to actress Cassandra Harris, who died of ovarian cancer in 1991. Pierce and Cassandra had a son Sean, now 19, and he adopted Chris (30) and Charlotte (33) the children from her first marriage. He describes himself as ‘a hands-on dad’ and says he has done his share of nappy changing. The family means everything to him. "I love all the boys and my daughter. They are the essence of my life in many respects," he says.

"It’s vital, it’s crucial to the well-being of my children, my wife and myself, to have a family life," says Pierce who admits he has to try and balance career demands and time at home. "I am blessed in having a wife like Keely who is understanding and supportive."

Since he first came to America 23 years ago, Pierce has never been out of work. Apart from being an international hit as James Bond he has been able to prosper outside of the world of 007 with films like The Thomas Crown Affair and The Tailor of Panama.

As he looks to the future, his aims are relatively simple. "I want to see Irish DreamTime carry on for the next 10 years, making interesting films. So that when we look back we can say that we didn’t repeat ourselves or if we did we improved."

Pierce, who started as a commercial artist, also wants to paint more, though he says that is just a hobby. He also talks about writing. "I don’t know what I might write, maybe a screenplay," he says.

Whatever he tries his hand on, chances are, Pierce Brosnan will be successful.