Pierce Brosnan simply doesn't know if he's going to earn a fifth and and final shot at 007. Meanwhile, there's a downbeat lawyer to portray instead. Steve Pratt reports.

PIERCE Brosnan's latest role couldn't be further removed from his suave, sophisticated and immaculately groomed appearances at the big screen's latest James Bond. In the romantic comedy Laws Of Attraction, he describes his character as "looking like an unmade bed".

Not that playing an unkempt divorce lawyer was a conscious decision to shake off his 007 image. "I never try and get away from Bond," he says. "But I do want to entertain as an actor and I love the variety of doing different things. I'd fall off the twig if I kept playing James Bond type action movies, where's the challenge in that?".

The question at the moment is will Brosnan pick up his licence to kill for one last movie as Bond? He reckons he's as much in the dark as anyone else.

"I really don't know what's going to happen," he says. "Technically my contract is up. I was employed for four, having said that I was invited back by Barbara (Broccoli, Bond's producer) and somehow in the middle of negotiations things went a little bit pear-shaped, so all bets are off at the moment."

One explanation for the delay in announcing the next Bond is that the producers are wondering how to top the last one, Die Another Day, which was a big international hit.

Brosnan would jump at the chance to play 007 again. "I'd love to do another one. And I was ready and had the mindset for another one," he says.

If he does make a fifth Bond, he reveals it will be the last. "It's a very demanding role and to serve the part well you have to be physically fit, it just wears and tears on you," he explains.

"In Sean Connery's day it was only a 12-week shoot, but now you have got six months, day in day out and the bar is even higher and far more demanding than in Sean's day."

For the moment, the 51-year-old can be seen as the romantic lead in Laws Of Attraction. He plays a divorce lawyer who has to work alongside rival attorney Julianne Moore, eventually discovering that opposites definitely attract.

"I loved doing a romantic film at long last," he says. "I just wish I'd done the bloody thing sooner, still, I got there in the end."

Shot in New York and Dublin, the film gave him a chance to work in his native Ireland. Born in Navan, he moved to London at the age of 11 but returns to his homeland as much as possible.

"My company Irish DreamTime means I can look for projects which take me to Ireland," he says. "I love going back. I have many friends there and film-makers I've known for years. It's a great chance to bring together mates who you admire and respect and enjoy working with."

One of those was his 20-year old son Sean, who's studying drama. "He was my stand-in on set and I think he's got what it takes," says his dad. "He has a passion and determination and I don't want to get in his way, he has the courage, talent and discipline for the profession. He'll do it without my help."

Devoted family man Pierce is dad to Sean, by his late wife Cassandra as well as Christopher and Charlotte, whom he adopted from her first marriage. Last year he married his long-term girlfriend Keely Shaye Smith. The couple have two little boys Dylan, seven, and three-year old Paris Beckett.

Being a new dad again has also made him think about the kind of roles he'd like to do in the future. "I definitely want to do something for the little ones, something they'd like to watch and enjoy," he says. "I think I've got one coming up next year which will be for the family."

That's not the only project in the pipeline. As well as The Matador, he's just wrapped a romantic thriller with Salma Hayek and says his next ambition is to make a London-set gangster movie.

"Whatever happens, Bond has allowed me to make my own film company, make my own pictures and have choices, and every actor wants choices," he says.

* Laws Of Attraction (12A) opens at cinemas tomorrow.

Published: 06/05/2004