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James Bond is one of the most popular fictional characters that several actors have played. However, Irish actor Pierce Brosnan was one of those actors who brought unique charm to the character. But suddenly, he was replaced by British actor Daniel Craig.
Brosnan had appeared in four James Bond films, ending with the highest-grossing entry in the franchise (at the time), Die Another Day. Yet he was replaced by Craig. In fact, Brosnan once even revealed that he did not quit the franchise instead, the makers fired him.
In an interview featured in Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films by Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury, Pierce Brosnan said that he was shocked when Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson told him his tenure was up.
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Pierce Brosnan said, “I was in the Bahamas, working on a movie called After the Sunset, and my agents called me up and said, ‘Negotiations have stopped. [Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson] are not quite sure what they want to do. They’ll call you next Thursday. I sat in Richard Harris’ house in the Bahamas, and Barbara and Michael were on the line —‘We’re so sorry.’ She was crying, Michael was stoic and he said, ‘You were a great James Bond. Thank you very much,’ and I said, ‘Thank you very much. Goodbye.’ That was it. I was utterly shocked and just kicked to the kerb with the way it went down.”
According to the book, negotiations fell through because Brosnan wanted too much money to be in another James Bond film. Daniel Craig was chosen to play James Bond because the producers decided to give the character a gritty makeover. No Time To Die, the fifth Bond film also served as Craig’s final outing as the venerable British agent.
In a 2004 interview with the Toronto Star, Pierce Brosnan confirmed that he didn’t quit as Bond; he was fired. “It’s over. It’s over. It’s absolutely over,” Brosnan said. He continued, “They (the producers) invited me back right before I went to present that film (Die Another Day) before I went on the road with Halle Berry to sell the movie. They said: ‘We’re so happy with the success. We want you to come back!’ I went on the road a happy man, you know? I thought we’d get a fifth and no more. That would be it, really. I’d done it. You get bored. You get older. You give of yourself to something, and then you have no more to give. But I thought a fifth would be good. And then one day, the phone rang— I was here in the Bahamas —and my agents told me that the goalposts had moved and that they had changed their minds.”
“It’s very hard to find the truth in that town [Hollywood] or in this business at times. But it was their prerogative to change their minds. They can do it. And they might have done it ‘to go younger. It was disappointing. It was surprising. And I accepted the knowledge after 24 hours of being in shock,” Brosnan added.
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