>
Pierce Brosnan channels grief in 'The Greatest'
Ruthe Stein, Chronicle Movie Correspondent
Friday, April 2, 2010
When Pierce Brosnan first read the script for "The Greatest,"
he was impressed by the high level of storytelling, but
didn't immediately sign on. He was staying at his vacation
home on Kauai luxuriating in the company of his wife,
journalist Keely Shaye Smith, and his two youngest children.
It was more than just the thought of going back to work that
stopped him. The script called for him to play a father who
must deal with the unbearable pain of losing his teenage son
in a car crash.
"I didn't know if I wanted to go near it because it was too
painful," Brosnan said over coffee.
In his 56 years, he has had more than his share of grief. He
lost his first wife, actress Cassandra Harris, to ovarian
cancer. It was a protracted illness during which Brosnan
supported her through five operations and countless rounds of
chemotherapy. A few years after her death, as he was
introduced as the new James Bond, he told me how much his
wife would have loved the fanfare. "She was a stepping-out
kind of girl," he said tearing up.
Then, in 2000, he almost lost a son, Sean, in an auto
accident. For a while Brosnan feared the boy might be
paralyzed.
"He is very fine now - a great young man," he said. Personal
knowledge Eventually Brosnan came to realize that the very
thing that made him want to quickly dispose of the script was
the reason he should say yes.
"I know something about grief and grieving," he said softly.
He brings this deep knowledge to the role of a math
professor, Allen, with a seemingly happy family life that
unravels after the death of his eldest son. Allen closes up,
while their loss becomes an obsession for his wife, played by
Susan Sarandon.
In one of several tear-jerking scenes, she tells him she
wants "someone to call out for me," to which Brosnan's Allen
replies, "I call out for you."
"I really had to dig in for that scene. You have to
personalize that moment, and personalize each day as well, on
a film like this. It was the way I was taught as an actor
back in England," said Brosnan, who trained at the Drama
Centre in London.
"I hadn't done a piece like this in a long time. When I say I
'dig in,' I mean you have to investigate your emotions and
find a place in your heart where that pain is. As a young
actor I would go there. But then you kind of paint yourself
in a corner with typecasting and an easy road. So, yes, I
could have gone on playing a charmer. But I'm a working
actor. I do want to have a long career, and taking chances is
the way to do it."
Brosnan, who served as executive producer on "The Greatest,"
helped first-time director Shana Feste persuade Sarandon to
take the leap with him. He made a kind of cold call to the
actress, whom he hadn't worked with and scarcely knew.
"I called her up and said, 'This is Pierce. I am going to do
this come hell or high water, and I want you to do it with
me. Why not?'
"I left that message on her machine. She called me back and
said, 'You got me with 'Why not?' " Life after Bond Brosnan's
career proves there is life after James Bond. Besides "The
Greatest," he also currently can be seen in "Remember Me,"
"Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" and,
most notably, "The Ghost Writer," for which he received his
best reviews ever as a slick politician loosely based on Tony
Blair.
After his first Bond film, "GoldenEye," was a success - it
grossed $350 million worldwide at a time when that number
still impressed - and "it looked as if I hadn't made a pig's
ear of it," Brosnan decided to take control of his career by
forming a production company. An Irishman born and bred, he
named it Irish DreamTime.
Early in his career he had a deal with Columbia to produce
his own movies, "but it went nowhere," he recalled. "I didn't
know what I was doing." This time around, he did. After
obtaining permission to work between outings as Bond, he
produced and starred in a successful remake of "The Thomas
Crown Affair." Post-Bond, he made "Evelyn," "Laws of
Attraction" and "The Matador" for Irish DreamTime.
"If I hadn't had the company I wouldn't have been given any
of these films," Brosnan said. "You have to make the breaks
for yourself, create roles for yourself."
He has grown to love the world of independent filmmaking and
says it reminds him of when he started out as a 19-year-old
in experimental theater.
"I never felt that I was a part of the studio system. I never
felt like I belonged. I felt more like an outsider."
No part of him misses the souped-up trailers that awaited him
on the "Bond" sets.
"You just want a comfortable bed to lie down in, and a
biscuit and a cup of tea. I love guerrilla filmmaking."
Next time, though, "I want to be in something soothing. After
this I'd like a nice light comedy."
The Greatest (R) opens Friday at Bay Area theaters.
E-mail Ruthe Stein at pinkletters@sfchronicle.com.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/02/PKVJ1CK3GB.DTL
-*-
'
-
Select threads ...
>> Light*Line NEWS ///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\/// MARCH 2010
global community news since 1997
http://LightLine.blogspot.com/
-----------------------------------------------
To sub/unsub go to http://LightLine.US
We'll Hook You Up!
* = Disclaimer & Fair Use Notice =
All info provided as a public service. Views and opinions
expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher. This
message may contain copyrighted material the use of which may
not have specific authorization by the copyright owner.
LightLine makes such material available in an effort to
advance the understanding of political, scientific, and
religious issues. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of
any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107
of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.
Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for nonprofit educational and research
purposes. For more information on fair use, go to:
http://linkbee.com/fairuse
"!"
0 comments:
Post a Comment