Disney, notoriously protective of its content, has decided to take another approach with shows like Lost and Prison Break.
Right before he was cast as James Bond and well after he was done as TV’s Remington Steele, Pierce Brosnan spent one of the warmest summers he ever spent in San Francisco, playing straight man to Robin Williams.
Warm as in feelings, that is.
During an appearance at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael on Saturday, Dec. 16, Brosnan called Williams “inspirational” during the filming of the blockbuster 1993 comedy “Mrs. Doubtfire,” among the most beloved San Francisco-shot films.
“ ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ was a big part of my life,” Brosnan told the crowd. “Robin Williams was inspirational to me. I came up here on the first day of shooting and went into the makeup trailer, and there was Robin Williams, sitting in a Hawaiian shirt, Ugg boots — with the head of Mrs. Doubtfire. It was a weird introduction.”
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On the set, Brosnan said it was challenging for him because Williams would improvise in nearly every scene.
“Robin just ran amok. You just had to hold on to your hat because you never knew where it was going to go,” he recalled. “Robin, a dear man. Beautiful man. Brilliant soul.”
Brosnan and film director Phillip Noyce traveled to San Rafael to present a screening of their new film “Fast Charlie” — and to take care of some unfinished business. Mill Valley Film Festival founder and Executive Director Mark Fishkin and Noyce presented Brosnan the festival’s Tribute award for his career as an actor after a two-month delay.
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Brosnan was scheduled to receive the award during this year’s MVFF in October when “Fast Charlie,” in which he plays a hit man in Mississippi and New Orleans, made its world premiere. But the actors’ strike, which ended Nov. 9, prohibited his appearance.
Both Brosnan and Noyce credited Fishkin for helping the film, which had a troubled financial history, including the fact the company that bought “Fast Charlie” went bankrupt. After premiering at MVFF, “Fast Charlie” — featuring James Caan’s last performance before his death in 2022 — was picked up by Vertical Entertainment and has since been released on video on demand.
Both men have a history with the festival. The Australian Noyce screened his Aboriginal-themed film “Rabbit-Proof Fence” in 2001, and Brosnan presented his darkly comic thriller “The Matador” in 2005.
Peter DaSilva
In introducing Brosnan, Noyce spoke of the actor’s disadvantaged childhood in Navan, County Meath, Ireland. His parents were poor, and after his father left the family, his mother moved to England for work. Brosnan was shuttled between relatives and lived for a time in a boarding house.
“Like so many people who don’t start with opportunity, he values opportunity so much,” said Noyce, who also noted Brosnan’s extensive philanthropic work. “What that means is when we were really in a mess on this film, I couldn’t have a person who would inspire me like Pierce did. Every day he made me feel like I couldn’t wait to get to the set because I knew … he would empower me. But not just me. He empowered everyone from the person that was delivering water, to the makeup artist, everyone on the crew.”
During the Q&A following the film’s screening, Brosnan admitted he was lost in movies as a boy, living “a life of imagination.” His favorites were American Westerns, but said he was especially moved by “The Defiant Ones,” a racial drama starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis.
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When he was 11, he moved to join his mother. He arrived in London on Aug. 12, 1964 — the same date that James Bond creator Ian Fleming died, he would find out later. The first film he saw in London, just a few days later was “Goldfinger,” the third James Bond movie starring Sean Connery.
“I didn’t want to be James Bond,” Brosnan said with a smile as the audience laughed. “I was more fascinated by Oddjob (the hat-wielding villain) and that beautiful gold lady.”
As a teenager, Brosnan went to art school. He resumed painting as therapy after the death of his first wife, Cassandra Harris, to ovarian cancer in 1991, and unveiled his first show of 50 paintings and 100 drawings — curated by his wife of 22 years, Keely Shaye Smith — in Los Angeles in May. Earlier this month, his works were on view again, this time for Art Miami.
Peter DaSilva
Later in his teens, he trained as a theater actor and had many influences. One of them was a brash young actor in a new movie called “The Godfather.” Caan’s explosive performance as Sonny Corleone made an impression on Brosnan. Little did he know that decades later he would spend a week acting with Caan, who plays an aging mobster and father figure to Brosnan’s hit man, Charlie Swift, in “Fast Charlie.”
Caan completed his role just days before his death in July 2022.
Brosnan told the Chronicle he and Caan would have tea and coffee in the morning together, but Caan was always gruffly in character.
“He’d stride onto the stage and give Phillip hell and all of us hell, but in a lovely quiet way, because he was striving to be this character,” Brosnan said. “At the end of that week, we said goodbye. We all applauded. I went over and I hugged him, and suddenly he said, ‘See you in Malibu.’ ”
Caan was smiling, he recalled, seemingly a completely different person.
“I thought, ‘You rascal,’ ” Brosnan said. “James Caan came to say goodbye to me, and (as) we had a quiet talk, the character fell away.”
Reach G. Allen Johnson: [email protected]
