For some reason, Hollywood is once again abuzz with rumors and predictions about who should be the next actor to play James Bond (historians will note that there must always be a James Bond, and bad things will happen if humankind goes too long without appointing a new James Bond), and that means a lot of people are being forced to answer the question of who they think should be the next person (see what we did there?) to take on the suits and the martinis and the Walther PPK. Series producer Barbara Broccoli recently said that they’re looking for an actor like Daniel Craig who will be willing (or semi-willing, in Craig’s case) to sit with the franchise for over a decade, which means whoever they cast is going to have to be pretty serious about it.
Former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan actually has a hot take on all of this: He doesn’t give a single shit and doesn’t especially care who plays the next James Bond. Stars, they’re just like us! (Or at least some of us, specifically those of us who are already tired of yet another round of “Who should play James Bond?!” discourse.)
Brosnan offered his refreshing response during a GQ profile about him and his handsome sons, preempting the question about who should play James Bond by saying, “Who should do it? I don’t care.” He went on to say that “it’ll be interesting to see who they get,” with GQ noting that he said it “in a tone that indicates it’s maybe not actually that interesting.” He also said that he loves Skyfall but wasn’t “too sure about the last one” (2021’s underrated No Time To Die, presumably), simply saying that “Daniel [Craig] always gives of his heart. Very courageous, very strong. But…” And that’s it.
More people in Hollywood should be willing to just not care about this stuff. Martin Scorsese probably spends less than five minutes of his whole year thinking about superhero movies, but because he had to comment on how he feels about them, it’s been entered into the public record and now we can never escape it. Speaking of superhero movies, here’s how Brosnan described his role in the upcoming Black Adam to GQ: “Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson, DC Comics. I play Dr. Fate.” Beautiful, and not because it’s coming from a place of disapproval or judgement. It’s because it’s coming from a place of genuine cool disinterest, like some kind of 70-year-old Irish Gen-Xer. Hey, maybe this guy should play James Bond?