Pierce Brosnan: ‘Cillian Murphy would do a magnificent job as James Bond’

Former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan has said fellow Irishman and Oscar nominee Cillian Murphy would make a “magnificent” 007.

“Cillian would do a magnificent job as James Bond on His Majesty’s Secret Service,” Brosnan told the BBC.

Reports suggest Murphy might be in the running although there have always been rumours about who will play Bond next.

Brosnan was speaking at the annual Oscar Wilde awards, which celebrate Irish creative talent in Los Angeles.

Murphy, who was also in attendance at the event at JJ Abrams’s Bad Robot Productions in Santa Monica, is favourite to win best actor at the 96th Oscar awards on Sunday for his titular role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

He said he had not heard the Bond rumours himself and also revealed that he had not really thought about possibly winning the Academy Award: “I just want to go in and have a good time.”

He’s up against Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers), Colman Domingo (Rustin), Bradley Cooper (Maestro) and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction).

Murphy also spoke about his son Aran, 16, who is making his film debut in Taika Waititi’s Klara And The Sun.

“I’m very proud of him, he’s a great actor,” he told reporters on the Irish-themed green carpet, adding that Aran didn’t need his dad’s advice.

Brosnan said he was “greatly honoured” to be given an Oscar Wilde award for his contributions to the film and TV industry.

He praised the “kinship” between Ireland and America, adding that he came to the US in 1982 “on a wing and a prayer… and then got a job, [on drama series] Remington Steele”.

Speaking about his homeland’s rich vein of talent, he told the BBC: “We come from a landscape of poetry… they’re great storytellers.”

The other honourees this year were Irish visual effects supervisor Richie Baneham and Irish-American actress and comedian Molly Shannon.

Shannon, who found fame on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the 1990s, said she was “so touched… I feel a deep connection to Ireland”.

Two-time Oscar winner Baneham, joked: “People keep telling me I’m being upstaged by James Bond (Brosnan) – but truly, I know him as Remington Steele.”

Baneham won his first best visual effects at the Academy Awards for 2009 movie Avatar, and then picked up a win in the same category last year for the long-awaited follow-up, Avatar: The Way of Water. The director of both films, James Cameron, presented Baneham with his honour.

Baneham is also working on the third Avatar film, due to be released in December 2025.

Speaking to the BBC about this year’s Oscars crop, he said he had “a soft spot” for visual effects nominee Godzilla Minus One “because it’s such a small movie”.

He described Oppenheimer as “a beast of a movie, it’s a massive undertaking” adding: “Hopefully Cillian does really well out of it (on Sunday).”

But his top tip? “Poor Things is a real winner. It’s a breath of fresh air as far as filmmaking’s concerned.”

And the film has a big Irish hand in it – alongside its star Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos, are Irish producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures.

Its 11 Oscar nominations mark a record for an Irish-produced film.