Simon Gardner
Dublin - He has what every man would die for - fast cars, beautiful women and the world in the palm of his hand - but for 007 Pierce Brosnan, it's just not enough.
The suave embodiment of the world's most celebrated secret agent James Bond, Brosnan - whose third outing in The world is not enough premieres in Europe on Wednesday - wants to play the fool.
"I want to try a romantic comedy and shake it up a bit," Brosnan said on a recent visit to his Irish hometown of Navan. "I want to play with this suave, romantic image I've got and slip on a banana skin - stylishly of course," he joked.
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At 46, Brosnan, who is currently juggling his own production company and other feature film projects, may well decide it is soon time to hang up his dinner jacket and call a truce with his megalomaniac foes.
But there's at least one more Bond film to come from him.
"I'm contracted for a fourth film so I guess I will be back," he said. "The World is not Enough is the third and I'm only just getting the hang of it," he said self-effacingly.
Brosnan's incarnation as 007 has been a big international success - both Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies were both commercial hits.
And The World is not Enough, in which he topically takes on a Bosnian crook trying to monopolise the world's oil reserves, is tipped to be the most successful of the 19 Bond films yet.
But while he wants to branch out from the heroic spy dreamt up by author Ian Fleming over 30 years ago, it's proving difficult.
In his recent remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, in which he plays a billionaire who steals priceless paintings for kicks, all Bond's favourite motifs are there: the luxury cars, supermodels, white-tie parties, and steamy scenes with the leading lady.
But he is quick to acknowledge that playing Bond was what made him.
"The Thomas Crown affair and other films like the Nephew have all happened because of James Bond," said the actor, whose who first real international success was as the foppish detective Remington Steele in the 1980s American series of the same name.
Under all the glitz and glamour surrounding arguably one of the world's top sex symbols, it is not Bond but Steele - a naive sleuth who always managed to win credit for solving cases by default - who best captures the man.
Despite life in tinseltown California, his friends and family say he has survived the ravages of international stardom.
"He's magic," said his cousin Donal Reilly, a carpenter nicknamed 006, who still lives in the sleepy Irish town northwest of Dublin where Brosnan had a humble working-class upbringing among furniture factories and pit-mines.
"But he's also just my cousin," added Reilly, as Brosnan was honoured by Navan's townsfolk with the ceremonial Freedom of the city earlier this month. "It's great to have someone successful in the family - but he hasn't changed much since he was a young lad. He's still the same personality."
For other members of the Brosnan family, however, being related to Bond brings a welcome cachet and glamour.
"It's great being Bond's son," said his 25-year-old son Christopher with stunning girlfriend in tow. "You get to be surrounded by the world's most beautiful women."
Brosnan himself - who to womankind's chagrin is already spoken for and engaged to long time partner and journalist Keely Shaye-Smith - has not forgotten his roots, and reminisced about a happy upbringing as an altar boy at the local church.
"I've always carried memories, images and bits of poetry in my heart about Navan," he said. "Sometimes it's difficult in life to know where you are from, but I'm a Navan man," he added, unwittingly referring to the hapless backwoods radio character "Navan Man" the town is mercilessly mocked for.
Whatever Brosnan's career choices, fans will have to wait a while for Brosnan's fourth Bond adventure. His publicist says he wants to take a break before fulfilling his contractual obligations. - Reuters
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