The role Pierce Brosnan lost for being “too handsome”: “It can get in the way”
If you grew up in the 1990s or early 2000s, chances are you are intimately acquainted with the polished aesthetic of Pierce Brosnan.
As the man playing James Bond for four films before he hung up his luxury suits, his face was one of the most famous in the land. The fifth one to guide 007 through his adventures, some good, some less so, he is held in fairly decent regard by the Bond fanbase.
As well as playing the world’s greatest spy, Brosnan has also acted medium for some of the greatest directors of all time. Tim Burton directed him in Mars Attacks! and he had a small role in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy closer The World’s End. He starred in Chris Columbus’ Mrs Doubtfire in 1993, and has now reunited with him after over two decades as part of an all-star adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club.
One director Brosnan never got the chance to work with, however, was the legendary John Huston. The man behind The Maltese Falcon, Prizzi’s Honor, The African Queen, and more worked with a litany of great actors in his time, but actually turned down a chance to work with the then-up-and-coming Irishman on his 1987 film The Dead. As Brosnan explained to The Irish Times, there was one thing that the director didn’t like about him, one very strange thing he couldn’t have controlled, and others spend good money pursuing.
“I sat there with the greatest trepidation but absolute enthusiasm and passion for the work,” he recalled ahead of his meeting with Huston, “And then, I heard this wheezing noise, the wheezing noise of emphysema. This man walked in. This great man with his oxygen tank. And he sat down. He just looked. And he said, ‘Too handsome! Too handsome!’ Handsome is as handsome does. It can get in the way.”
On paper, Brosnan would have been perfect for The Dead, which is based on the Dubliners‘ closing short story by James Joyce, set in Ireland around the turn of the 20th century. It centres on a couple, played by Donal McCann and Huston’s daughter Anjelica, and their various guests at a dinner party. It’s unclear who Brosnan was auditioning for. He would have been too young to have played the McCann part, so he most likely would have been up for one of the eligible young bachelors looking for love at the party.
As it turns out, this was the star’s final chance to collaborate with the iconic American. The Dead turned out to be Huston’s final film. As Brosnan alluded to, he was suffering severely from a lifetime of heavy smoking. Emphysema turned to lung disease, which took his life in August of 1987, and The Dead was released four months later.
John Huston is one of the most important figures in Hollywood history, having directed (and acted in) some truly monumental films, and was a key figure in one of Hollywood’s most impressive dynasties. Brosnan might not have gotten the chance to work for him, but at least he was given something of a compliment by the icon. Take a moment to feel for the people Huston did cast, who he clearly thought weren’t handsome enough to cause any issues.
