In the new AMC series The Son, the former 007 swaps martinis and an Aston Martin for some whiskey and a horse
James bond. Remington steele. Thomas Crown. Pierce Brosnan has made a career of playing suave leading men. This month, he trades British wit for Texas grit in the Old West family saga The Son (April 8). The series, based on the Philipp Meyer novel, centers on the rise of Brosnan’s Eli McCullough from young pioneer to ruthless oil tycoon. Here, the 63-year-old actor discusses busting genres and beating the Texas heat.
If J.R. Ewing had been born in the mid-19th century and abducted by the Comanche, the irascible Dallas patriarch could have been Eli McCullough, the hard-bitten Texan at the center of The Son, AMC’s new multigenerational Western saga.
Based on Philipp Meyer’s critically acclaimed novel, the new series follows the epic journey of McCullough—“the First Son of Texas, born on the day in 1836 that the former Mexican province became an independent republic,” explains executive producer Kevin Murphy. “At heart, though, Eli is a Comanche pretending to be a cowboy.”
Pierce Brosnan has come full circle.
The Irish-born actor, who launched his acting career in America in 1982 as the debonair con man of “Remington Steele,” returns to TV on Saturday. In the decades between, he became an international star thanks to a quartet of films as James Bond, which also made him a fabulously wealthy man. He’s been featured in everything from comedies (“Mrs. Doubtfire”) and remakes (“The Thomas Crown Affair”) to star-driven vanity projects (Barbra Streisand’s “The Mirror Has Two Faces”) and even musicals (“Mamma Mia!”), all the while keeping his wits about him and stardom intact. Talk about resilience.