These men do exist in our society, they kill for money.”Making the film was enjoyable, Brosnan says, despite some trepidation about filming in Mexico City. In fact, his fears were well founded: one of the crew was mugged “My wife had some concerns,” he says “You hear about violence and kidnapping. But I do feel I have some bit of talent to create a character or move people, or entertain an audience, and that is very gratifying.”The Matador is particularly exciting to Brosnan because he’s finally proved himself as a versatile actor. There have been solid performances before where he played against type, in films such as The Tailor of Panama in 2001, and the Irish drama Evelyn that he produced in 2002 But neither film took off at the box office. His performance in The Matador has had American critics in raptures.”As an actor I’ve had the time of my life Jesus, I’ve been living the life of Riley, ” he says. “But you sit back and think: ‘Well, some day maybe I’ll find a role, find a piece and just nail it.’ Some people have careers that are brilliant, everything they touch turns to gold I’m just a working actor, a journeyman.

My God, I came over to America 23 years ago, on a wing and a prayer on Freddie Laker, sandwiches in the back of the plane, you know? I was hoping to work with Martin Scorsese and ended up with a TV job instead, doing Remington Steele But beggars can’t be choosers Don’t look a gift horse in he mouth. That’s why The Matador is so good,” he says.”I was aware that I was not getting the good acting roles because I was either too handsome, too pretty or whatever I was being judged in ways that left me nowhere to go. You have to be patient.”Brosnan’s Julian Noble is appealing and scary at the same time “He is a killer, but you just like the guy. I gave the script to a friend at LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department], who introduced me to a criminal psychologist and she gave me a breakdown of this kind of psychopath. As an actor, I’ve got by, I’ve had employment, I’ve had the good fortune to be able to work and I just feel blessed. When I first met him, in 1992, he was starring in a small film called The Lawnmower Man, shortly before his appearance in Mrs Doubtfire. A few years earlier, he had missed the opportunity of playing Bond because of contractual commitments to his television show Remington Steele.

Yet he was enormously enthusiastic about his career and life in general. And during the Bond years he never seemed self-satisfied; on the contrary, one always felt that he couldn’t quite believe his luck.
“I left school at 15 feeling fairly useless and not really up to scratch in my education,” says Brosnan “And I still suffer sometimes from that lack of education. He had recently lost his wife, the actress Cassandra Harris, to ovarian cancer He was working, but the roles were pedestrian. He’s easy on the ear, his soft, Irish voice undulating gently He seems more or less unchanged by fame. You are used to seeing Brosnan, trying to do his best Cary Grant acting, so to dismantle that was great.”He talks about himself in the third person, in a strangely old-fashioned style, but does so with charming self-deprecation. The swimming-pool scene has certainly become the central image from this film,” says the actor. “Brosnan in his Cuban-heel boots and skivvies, Heineken in one hand and a fag in the other hand.

Then suddenly you’re walking across the lobby in your knickers and people say ‘how amusing’. “Yes, it’s a good performance, relaxed, confident and sure-footed, possibly my best performance ever,” says Brosnan. “I’ve been identified with James Bond or Thomas Crown for so long; suave, elegant, sophisticated men in suits. it’s like you’ve been giving the same performance for 20 years. The actor is describing Julian Noble, the debauched hitman he portrays in his latest film, with great relish. The Matador, written and directed by Richard Shepard, is a black comedy that’s refreshing because it is so far removed from 007.

We see the actor looking hungover and unappealing, sporting a moustache and unflatteringly tight shirts, with a gold chain around his neck. In the most memorable scene, the former James Bond saunters through a hotel lobby, out to the swimming pool, wearing nothing but his skimpy underpants. Brosnan has managed to reinvent himself with one quirky film. Indie queen Clarkson may be, but that in no way keeps the actress from, as she puts it, “looking nice, looking good”.’Good Night, and Good Luck’ is out today. “I am a sick, pathetic, immoral, alcoholic, sexually perverse, lost man, who is having a crisis of confidence in Mexico City,” says Pierce Brosnan, a gleam in his eye.