Pierce Brosnan has given up movie stunts because he is ’embracing’ getting older and wants to be able to act until the day he dies.
The former James Bond actor, 72, has performed several of his own stunts throughout his career as the iconic British secret agent.
The 007 screen star explained how he wishes to age gracefully in a striking new cover shoot and interview ahead of being honoured at the GQ Men Of The Year event in London on Tuesday night.
He told GQ: ‘There is a definite conscious intention to go forwards because I’m the age I am, and I embrace it.
‘I don’t want to jump out of airplanes. Jump on the bus. Jump off the bus.’
Revealing plans to continue acting into his 80s, Pierce added: ‘I’ll be an artist ’til the last breath.’
Pierce Brosnan has given up movie stunts because he is ’embracing’ getting older and wants to be able to act until the day he dies
The 007 screen star explained how he wishes to age gracefully in a striking new cover shoot and interview ahead of being honoured at the GQ Men Of The Year event in London on Tuesday
Pierce looked dapper as he posed in a tweed suit and black turtleneck for the striking shoot.
He also wore a wool jacket over a a black suit and completed both looks with a pair of sunglasses.
The legendary actor is in no rush to retire after recently starring in Netflix drama The Thursday Murder Club and is leading man in Paramount+ series MobLand.
Pierce hopes to appear in a sequel to The Thursday Murder Club, and started filming the second season of Mob Land this month.
He explained: ‘It’s just been a delight for two years of working back to back. In this time and place in age, it allows me to play characters.
‘It allows me to enjoy the process of acting and of playing within the image, playing within the symbol, playing within the icon of that person that you’ve created.’
But the Irish screen star admitted he has worried he wasn’t prioritising family enough in the past and so even at the height of his career arranged his schedule so that he could with his sons as much as possible.
He said: ‘I look and I think, “God, did I do enough by my sons? Have I given them enough attention?”‘
The former James Bond actor, 72, has performed several of his own stunts throughout his career as the British secret agent (pictured in 1995 in GoldenEye)
The legendary actor is in no rush to retire after recently starring in Netflix drama The Thursday Murder Club (pictured clockwise from left: Helen Mirren, Pierce, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie)
With such a colourful and fulfilled career, Pierce admitted he no longer feels the need to revisit the world of Bond and is happy to leave him in the past.
‘Of course, people ask about Bond – ‘would you?’ and whatever – but that’s another man’s job,’ he said.
‘But the possibilities of working within that film, entertaining…So it’s going to be exciting to see what happens.
‘I think everything changes, everything falls apart, so you just sit back and enjoy it all. Sometimes you entertain it and sometimes you just move on.’
Speaking of the the world of spies and suits that once defined him, he says he understands why audiences still love it.
‘I was playing within the proscenium arch of espionage – MI5, MI6. Audiences enjoy that.
‘It’s wonderful to be on the other end of it – to play James Bond and then to play the head of the agency, a bottled spider like him.’
Pierce as 007 in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye
Pierce will be honoured at the GQ Men of the Year Awards as he posed for the cover
Pierce has previously said it is a ‘given’ that Daniel Craig’s successor should be British.
It comes following concerns that the franchise will not be British anymore in the wake of Amazon MGM Studios taking creative control over the 007 character.
In February, the US film and television production and distribution studio announced it will be co-owners with Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who have produced the Bond films together since Brosnan’s first movie – 1995’s GoldenEye.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Pierce said: ‘I thought it was coming for some time I guess, but I think it was the right decision for Barbara and Michael.
‘It takes great courage for them to let go, they will still have a say in matters, I hope that (Amazon) handles the work and the character with dignity and imagination and respect.’
There has been increasing speculation about the future of the series, with no announcement of a new actor to play the famous spy since Daniel Craig’s final portrayal in 2021’s No Time To Die.
Pierce was introduced as Bond in GoldenEye, at the inception of Broccoli and Wilson’s creative takeover, and his last film was 2002’s Die Another Day.
Pierce Brosnan will be honoured at the GQ Men of the Year event on November 18 in London.
