“And now I’m getting annoyed”: The actor who unreasonably irritates Pierce Brosnan
When your name is Pierce Brosnan, you can work with pretty much whoever you want.
Just look at his time as James Bond, where, across his four outings as 007, he shared the screen with John Cleese, Halle Berry, Michelle Yeoh, Sean Bean, and the great Judi Dench, and in the years since he hung up his Walther PPK, he’s rubbed elbows with actors from across the generations and is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. However, there are still names he wants to tick off.
In all his years in show business, the Irish-born star has never been in a movie with George Clooney, and despite both being leading lights in Hollywood at the same time for decades, nobody thought it would be a good idea to team these two up. In fact, Clooney has never appeared in the same movie as any actor who ever played James Bond, which is probably just a coincidence.
That doesn’t mean the two silver foxes aren’t aware of each other’s work, though, as People found out when they caught up with Brosnan at the premiere of Clooney’s 2025 Broadway debut, Good Night, and Good Luck. Eagle-eyed fans will recognise this as an adaptation of a 2005 movie, which Clooney also starred in and directed, and when asked why he’d decided to show his support for the Oscar winner, he gave a very simple answer.
“[I] Love the man,” he said, “Really love his movies. Love his style. Love the way he conducts himself, he’s got such class… And he’s so gosh darn confident, and so handsome. And now I’m getting annoyed.”
Brosnan is really in no position to get annoyed about someone being handsome, for he’s always been a looker, to the point where it’s even cost him roles in the past. He’s not short of confidence either, if his performances are to be believed, and along with Clooney is adept at playing suave charmers, often with a sinister edge. Just look at Ocean’s Eleven and The Thomas Crown Affair, both of which are remakes of 1960s movies about charismatic criminals planning elaborate heists, where either man could have easily fulfilled the other’s brief.
Keely Shaye Smith, Brosnan’s wife, was also keen to point out the good work the A-lister has done outside of the acting realm. “[He’s] a great philanthropist,” she said, “He advocates for the underdogs. He’s political.”
In this regard, Clooney and her husband are cut from the same cloth, as both are keen political activists in favour of the Democrats, unless they’re called Joe Biden, and each man has also been incredibly vocal on a number of social issues, including LGBTQ+ rights and the destruction of the environment.
Despite Brosnan being older than Clooney by about a decade, both stars are in the ‘elder statesmen’ phase of their careers, and this would be the perfect time to put them in the same film, partly because they’re not going to be around forever (sorry to get morbid), and also because one is clearly a fan of the other, so surely it’s only a matter of time. Unless it turns out that Clooney can’t stand Brosnan, then that would be awkward.
