Losing the role as James Bond didn't shake Pierce Brosnan, he tells Steve Pratt. And neither did getting into bed with his male co-star in his latest film, After Sunset.

Pierce Brosnan is a man out of Bondage and looking for a new life outside the secret service. His departure from the 007 franchise may have been unexpected but he's neither shaken nor stirred by the decision of the Bond producers to look for someone else to take over as James Bond.

He'd reached the end of his contract after Die Another Day but had indicated he was ready, willing and able to play him one more time. This was followed by apparent dithering in the Bond camp. Now the start date for the next Bond movie has been pushed back into 2005 and Brosnan's no longer involved.

Around the time he should have been reprising the role of Ian Fleming's hero, Brosnan finds himself free to talk about his latest screen role in the heist caper After The Sunset. But first he has to put Bond to bed: "I had a great decade playing the character. I'm grateful for the opportunity I got and being part of that legacy, but everything comes to an end. It's over for me and I wish them well," he says.

The crime caper element of After The Sunset may hark back to his starring role in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, but the new movie features something different for Brosnan - he shares a bed with his male co-star Woody Harrelson.

He had no worries slipping between the sheets with the former Cheers star for what is, it should be pointed out, a comic, not sexual, scene. "I had no fear whatsoever," says Brosnan. "I thought it was a very endearing scene. I had no problems going there. It's a very funny scene."

He spends most of the movie grappling with someone far more attractive than Harrelson - leading lady Salma Hayek, whose costumes seem to consist of little more than a succession of bikinis.

Brosnan himself doesn't look his usual immaculate self. As retired (or is he?) master thief Max Burdett, he's unshaven and casually dressed. "I don't know where this scruffy look came from," he says. "It was just to get away from the obvious look from the Bond movies. I grew this kind of beard. I saw him coming from the hippy era and so that became the look."

Like Hayek, he spends a lot of time shirtless, understandable as the movie is set in the sunny Bahamas. "I didn't work out or anything. I just let it hang out. What you see is what you get. It was not about having a buff body. The guy is comfortable in his own skin and enjoys his life," says the actor.

He's always been aware that the films he made in between Bond assignments would define his career as much as 007. He knew that if he got Bond right he was "going to be married to this role for the rest of my life". But he was determined to be more than Bond. "I love being an actor and have my own company to make work for myself and create opportunities for myself that wouldn't normally be there," he says.

"It was a strong decision that between films, I had time on my hands and how did I use it as effectively as possible for a career that, hopefully, will have some longevity."

After The Sunset was not without pre-production problems. There were times, Brosnan admits, when he almost lost faith in the project. But he'd done heist and caper movies in the past and could sense there were the makings of a good film. He describes his worries as "just general actors' neurosis and nerves", adding that director Brett Ratner - who made Rush Hour and the Hannibal Lecter thriller Red Dragon - was a tower of strength.

He also enjoyed working with Harrelson, whom he's known from the days of TV, when he was in Remington Steel and Harrelson was in Cheers. "I just like the guy, and have great respect for him as an actor," he says. "We rented homes on location, he was next door. We have the same outlook on life and likes in life. It was just good chemistry. It's not something you can work at or fabricate. You either like each other or not."

Brosnan has always kept a clear head about his work, not getting sucked into the celebrity circuit. "In the fantastic world of making films, I get to have my cake and eat it. I'm a married man and have kids and love family life," he says. "I had my family on location with me and had the comfort of that and the joy of going off and working with these great people, kissing and rolling around with Salma Hayek. But at the end of the day, it was home to mama."

While After The Sunset has thematic similarities to The Thomas Crown Affair, he was happy there were enough differences not to make it seem like a replay. "I find heist movies appealing," he says. "They go back to my childhood, the films I grew up on like The Italian Job and The Anderson Tapes."

He reveals that his company has just hired a writer to work on a sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair. "We're going to have a crack at it," he says.

* After The Sunset opens in cinemas tomorrow.

Published: 18/11/2004