The former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan returns to the world of spies in The November Man, an action thriller that pits his character against his former CIA bosses.
The Irish actor, who has never hidden his disappointment at not getting to play 007 for a little longer, says he is still up to the action game despite his 61 years – although he had to work hard to get in shape.
“I like my beer, I like my wine,” said the man who starred as Britain’s most famous fictional spy in four Bond movies. “I have to keep up. Tennis, work out, work out, play tennis ... I have had so many trainers.”
The November Man, co-produced by Brosnan and based on a series of novels by Bill Granger, is about Peter Devereaux, a former CIA hitman brought out of retirement for one final mission.
His task is to extract a female spy, who just happens to be the mother of his daughter, from Moscow because she has evidence of crimes committed by a Russian presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, Devereaux’s former spy trainee, David Mason (Luke Bracey) has been ordered to kill the woman.
Brosnan admits that playing a hard-living spy again, 12 years after his last Bond outing, was tough. “There is a certain mileage on the bones, the heart and the soul,” he says. “I have to do work. Nothing comes from nothing,” he added, joking that he was sick of trainers. Looking back at his time Bond, he said: “It is like being an ambassador to a small country. You have to hold it lightly, wear it with pride, surrender to it and not be trapped by any ego or fear.
“If you give any resistance or any negative energy it will eat you up. You have to celebrate it, enjoy it. You saved the world four times.”
The director Roger Donaldson, who also worked with Brosnan on 1997's Dante's Peak, added: "He's a smart, intelligent guy [who has] made the best of his fame."
The November Man is out now.