Pierce Brosnan plays 007 Goldeneye on The Tonight Show

Posted 21 Aug 2014 by Squid, last modified 13 Sep 2016

This past Wednesday, Pierce Brosnan appeared on The Tonight Show hosted by Jimmy Fallon. I realise that Sean Bean just did an AMA that I wrote about before, so I guess that this must be the official month of remembering Goldeneye or something =P

Transcript

Jimmy: I love all your movies and I re-watched them, they’re on blu-ray DVDs I have like 20 collections of all the James Bond stuff. But one of my favourite things ever was this, the Nintendo 64 videogame, Goldeneye.

Audience: [Applause]

Jimmy: And this is one of the best videogames of all time.

Pierce: It’s a good one, extremely popular.

Jimmy: I love it and you play you…

Pierce: I was not good at it. I played it once and shot myself in the foot. It was just…

Jimmy: Well I was wondering, this is kind of like a childhood dream of mine, I would love to (or college age)

Pierce: Play this?

Jimmy: I would love to play the game with you.

Pierce: Is that what that is over there?

Jimmy: We have it set up! … You don’t have to be good!

Pierce: Come on, let’s go!

Jimmy: Let’s do it! Yes! I’m so excited about this. 007 Goldeneye, this is fantastic, oh my gosh. I’m very excited about this! You don’t understand!

Pierce: Alright. We just…

Jimmy: I think it’s blue to pick up the gun and it’s trigger down here to shoot.

Pierce: Okay. You gotta switch it on!

Jimmy: I know, it’s on, we’re ready to go! Ready? I’m so excited!

Pierce: We’ll just talk amonget ourselves!

Jimmy: No no, I’m just whis tis ajkfgpdfirbd! Here we go, ready?

Pierce: Yeah.

Jimmy: Good luck mister Bond!

Audience: [Lol]

Jimmy: Alright! I’m on top, I’m on top! I’m above you.

Pierce: Okay.

Jimmy: So then you go and you just run and gun. Now you need blue to pick up the gun.

Pierce: Pick up the gun.

Jimmy: I’m not sure that you have the gun…

Pierce: Where’s the gun? I don’t know where my gun is.

Jimmy: You don’t have a gun? You’re chopping! You’re karate chopping me!

Pierce: Well, when in doubt, chop! You know? There’s a gun… I picked up some body armour.

Jimmy: Where are you? I feel like I’m… Oooh! Hello mister Bond! Hello mister Bond!

Pierce: Oh it’s mister Fallon! Yes, Yes!

Jimmy: Oh! How are you still alive?! You’re like the real Bond!

Pierce: I’m stopping…!

[Jimmy kills Pierce]

Jimmy: Oh yes!!

Pierce: Jimmy!

Jimmy: You are a good man!

Pierce: I thought you liked me!

Jimmy: No I love you!

Pierce: I love you too!

Jimmy: It’s just a game! Pierce Brosnan!

There you have it ladies and gentlemen, one of the awesomest things to ever happen on telly. Ever. How meta is it to see the actor whose face is in the game play the character from the game? Very meta, that’s for sure.

Pierce is also such a sport about it. By the way he acted, you can really tell he’s not a guy that plays a lot of games. He’s too busy kicking ass to do that, so it’s understandable that he was a bit reluctant and dismayed about it.

Jimmy on the other hand seemed really enthusiastic about this encounter. For someone that hosts his own show, he was stuttering a lot so you could tell that he was genuinely thinking in his mind “I can’t believe this is happening”. He was clearly thinking about this for days beforehand.

Pierce Brosnan on Reddit

Coincidentally, Pierce did an AMA on Reddit the day after the appearance on Jimmy Fallon. The vast majority of questions were about him as James Bond and his role in Mrs. Doubtfire which you can read in the link above, but here are a few questions related to the N64.

Redditor: So my question is what is your favorite Bond movie? Both yours and not yours?

Pierce: My movies would be the GoldenEye, I love that movie, it was the first one out the gate, so to speak. And then Goldfinger, because it was the first James Bond film I saw as a boy, fresh off the plane from Ireland in 1964.

Redditor: Did you get that Jaw of yours seen to?

Pierce: Oh that’s crazy! I love it. This is the first time I’ve seen this piece of artwork. I think it has a rather delightful neanderthal look to it.

Redditor: Will there be a rematch with Jimmy Fallon playing ‘GoldenEye’?

Pierce: Highly unlikely.

Redditor: Why did you let Jimmy Fallon win? Was it to keep your cover intact?

Pierce: Ha. No, he just beat me fair & square. Maybe we’ll have a rematch someday.

Redditor: Did you ever play “Goldeneye” on the N64? You were still super handsome even in DK mode. I’m a man btw

Other Redditor: [Links to the video at the start of this post]

Redditor: With the growing popularity of video games as an artistic medium, would you ever consider acting in one?

Pierce: I have considered it, very much so. And now with the advent of the November Man movie in my life, and the possibilities of its franchise potential, you might just see me in a videogame. It’s a possibility.

And that’s about it.

Most of the other questions were regarding his personal life and general movie experiences, so I’ll leave it at that. The most interesting thing I can derive from these exchanges is that in one instance he says that a rematch with Jimmy Fallon is “Highly unlikely”, and at another point he says that “Maybe we’ll have a rematch someday”. I can’t tell which came first, so I’ll leave it open to interpretation.

Pierce has been such a champ these past couple of days. I know I’ll be seeing November Man when it comes out!