The not so Noble art

THERE'S something strangely familiar about the middle-aged man walking across the hotel lobby. He certainly looks like someone you've seen before, but in different circumstances. The seedy moustache and the fact that he's wearing little more but black briefs are a little off-putting.

This is a scene from The Matador and the man in his knickers is none other than Pierce Brosnan, who has shaken and stirred cinemagoers around the world as secret agent James Bond. He's doing his best to look his worst in his first post-007 movie to reach the screen.

The scene in a Mexican hotel lobby will come as a shock to those used to seeing him as the suave, well-dressed, womanising spy. This is just as he intends it. After reviving the franchise in four big hits, the Irish-born actor's licence to kill has been taken away and he's keen to explore unknown territory on screen. Hence his role as a sleazy hit man, or "facilitator of fatalities" as Julian Noble describes himself.

Brosnan has always tried to slot in different roles between kissing and killing in Bond movies, often creating opportunities through his production company, Irish DreamTime. His absence from Casino Royale, the next Bond movie currently in production with Daniel Craig starring, doesn't stop him being asked about Ian Fleming's creation whom he'd said he'd like to play one more time. The producers decided otherwise.

Brosnan is understandably tired of questions about 007, as most actors become when associated with a single role. The message comes over loud and clear: it's time to move on.

Writer-director Richard Shepard's script for The Matador arrived in Irish DreamTime's office and got everybody talking. The actor didn't view it as closing the door on Bond. "I just thought it was a wonderfully kind of perverse, theatrical piece," he says.

Producer Beau St Clair was worried about the lobby scene, suggesting he wear pyjamas rather than his underpants. "I said, 'no, the train's left the station, we'll take no prisoners, we're going in here now'," recalls Brosnan.

"So this Bond, you know it's just another character, but I've been very aware of painting myself into a corner and for some time had the desire, the want and the passion to break out of a mould which I'd seen closing in around me. Albeit a very good one and a good healthy career, but I knew something had to happen. Luckily Richard Shepard came into our lives with this wonderful script."

He'd already had to turn down Bond earlier in his career as he was contracted to the US TV series Remington Steele. He knew when he eventually signed up for the role that he'd be labelled if he got it right.

"You had to look ahead and try to carve a niche for yourself outside of that role," he explains. "When the success happened with GoldenEye, Beau and I formed a company to make films. We said let's not get into development hell, let's just find a piece that we like and let's just have a crack at it."

"The success of Bond has been bountiful to us as a company and to me as an actor. It gave me the prominence on a world stage and an education in producing movies, and relationships with distributors around the world. I've always wanted to do movies, be part of this game, so what a joy."

He admits that some people were fearful about him playing Julian Noble, a man with no morals and wide-ranging sexual appetite. Shepard met some of these concerns, or as Brosnan puts it "addressed a few issues", with re-writes on the principle that less was more.

Noble is successful by blending into the scenery wherever he is. He can go into a hotel bar and meet someone who has no idea who he is. As a famous face, Brosnan isn't allowed that option because of playing such an iconic role. He reckons he could disappear if need be but has no intention of doing so. "I've worked too hard to get where I am right now and you always feel a certain wind of change in your career," he says.

"I remember being cast in a Tennessee Williams play and thought, 'wow, this is so it'. This film, The Matador, has such character and style and theatricality. I haven't done this kind of role. It's an exciting time for Beau and I with our company and with future projects. Nothing comes from nothing, you have to keep working, showing up and pushing forward."

Researching to play a hit man didn't mean meeting a real life assassin. He had a criminal psychologist break down the script and analyse Noble as she would one of her police case psychopaths. "I was happy to talk with her and read her notes. I didn't want to go off and meet one of these nutters," he says.

"A friend of mine who's got a Boston accent with a kind of crack in it - I used that. I was going to play him American, then that didn't sound right so I used the London. I grew the moustache. I thought that was rather Village People, like In The Navy. I thought Julian would listen to a little bit of that.

"It got sicker and sicker really, and my wife got more and more worried. Then the great Cat Thomas, the costume designer, said, 'what do you think?' and I said, 'cowboy boots'. She bought me these rather phallic, Cuban-heeled Italian boots. So the character was built from the ground up, more or less."

Filming in Mexico City was not without its worries. The week before they left there was a big article in the LA Times about kidnappings there. "I had to hide it from my wife and put it under the sofa. In the afternoon the kids came in and jumped on dad on the sofa, and my wife found the article. There was real, deep concern for one's welfare. But it was flawless - the people embraced us, we embraced them back and there were no problems.

"Mexico is a huge character in the film, we got all those fabulous locations. You're in this city that has a kind of darkness to it, and it made us cluster together at the hotel and gave it a wonderful sense of community."

And what, you wonder, would happen if hit man Julian Noble came up against secret agent James Bond? Who would emerge the winner? "Julian," says Brosnan confidently. "Julian would take out Bond in a flash."

The Matador (15) opens in cinemas on Friday.