The James Bond franchise was led by actor Pierce Brosnan in the 90s and early 2000s. After his departure from the series, however, Brosnan felt his Bond films might have left a lot to be desired.
One area Brosnan would’ve liked to see his movies improve upon had been his sex scenes.
Brosnan had a few complaints about his incarnation of the 007 agent. During his tenure as the character, Brosnan wasn’t sure if his movies ever went far enough with Bond. In a 2014 interview with The Telegraph, the actor asserted that his Bond felt watered down.
I felt I was caught in a time warp between Roger and Sean,” he said. “It was a very hard one to grasp the meaning of, for me. The violence was never real, the brute force of the man was never palpable. It was quite tame, and the characterization didn’t have a follow-through of reality, it was surface.”
However, Brosnan went on to note that his own insecurities about playing Bond may have influenced his memory of the role. Still, there were certain aspects of his Bond movies that Brosnan was sure he didn’t like. His sex scenes, for instance, lacked the kind of intimacy he experienced with other projects.
“You’re not even allowed to show a bloody nipple,” he once told GQ. “It’s pathetic. What Bond needs is a good, palpable killing sequence and a good sex scene – and it doesn’t have to be graphic, you can use your imagination. We had a good one in The Thomas Crown Affair: a really classy, sexy scene.”
Pierce Brosnan once named Halle Berry as one of his favorite Bond girls
One of the actors Brosnan had love scenes with was Oscar-winner Halle Berry. Berry joined the long list of Bond girls in the 2002 feature Die Another Day, and Brosnan confessed to being smitten by her. So much so that she ended up being a top Bond girl in the actor’s eyes.
She is just a luscious girl with such a beautiful body and she’s a good woman, too. She has a great sense of her own sexuality, so she knows it and she plays it,” he said.
But even with Berry, Brosnan wasn’t too pleased with the loves scenes in their film.
“I remember doing a sex scene with Halle—I mean frolicking in the bed—and there was director Lee Tamahori right under the sheets with us like some mad Kiwi, saying, ‘All right, now, where are you going to put your hands? Where are you going to grab her?’ I said excitedly, ‘Is this how you’re going to shoot it? Are you going to bring the camera in under the sheets?’ If only, man, if only,” Brosnan once recalled to Playboy. “The way we ended up doing it was almost like the old days in Hollywood: kissing the girl but still having your feet on the floor.”
The Bond films saw Brosnan being intimate with several young stars. Apart from Berry, Brosnan also found himself sharing screen time with the likes of Rosamund Pike, Teri Hatcher and Michelle Yeoh. But there were a couple of other actors Brosnan felt would’ve made equally memorable Bond girls.
“Monica Bellucci is a ravishing beauty—a gorgeous, gorgeous woman. She screen-tested to be a Bond girl a while back, and the fools said no,” Brosnan said. “Teri Hatcher stole the day instead. Uma Thurrnan is another magnificent beauty and a fine actress.”
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