The James Bond sex scenes Pierce Brosnan called “pathetic”
While so many plaudits go to the likes of Roger Moore and Sean Connery for their portrayals of James Bond, for those who were born a little later into the 20th century, the real 007 is Pierce Brosnan, having featured in four films between 1995 and 2002 before handing the role over to Daniel Craig.
Brosnan’s efforts in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day cemented Brosnan in the canon of spy cinema greats, even if his performances are sometimes undermined somewhat. Still, it’s a role that the Irish actor will hold close to his heart for the remainder of his career.
However, despite loving his time as Bond, there are a few things in hindsight that Brosnan feels could have been done better, particularly when it came to the more sexual side of 007. During an interview with The Telegraph, Brosnan once explained how he felt that his version of Bond had been watered down somewhat.
“I felt I was caught in a time warp between Roger and Sean,” the actor said. “It was a very hard one to grasp the meaning of, for me. The violence was never real; the brute force of the man was never palpable. It was quite tame, and the characterization didn’t have a follow-through of reality; it was surface.”
For instance, the sex scenes that Brosnan was involved in weren’t half as saucy as some of those that the 007s from the 1970s got down to. In another interview with GQ, Brosnan went on to suggest that he did not feel the kind of intimacy with his female co-stars that he might have expected.
“You’re not even allowed to show a bloody nipple,” he noted. “It’s pathetic. What Bond needs is a good, palpable killing sequence and a good sex scene – and it doesn’t have to be graphic; you can use your imagination. We had a good one in The Thomas Crown Affair: a really classy, sexy scene.”
One of Brosnan’s co-stars was Halle Berry in 2002’s Die Another Day, and he once said that she was one of his favourite fellow performers. However, Brosnan was disappointed with how the amorous moments with Berry on screen went down.
He told Playboy: “I remember doing a sex scene with Halle – I mean frolicking in the bed – and there was director Lee Tamahori right under the sheets with us like some mad Kiwi, saying, ‘All right, now, where are you going to put your hands? I said, ‘Is this how you’re going to shoot it?’ The way we ended up doing it was almost like the old days in Hollywood: kissing the girl but still having your feet on the floor.”
