Pierce Brosnan on How The Greatest Tapped Into a Terrifying Night He'll Never Forget

You were also a producer on the film, alongside your partner Beau St. Clair.

Yes. I mean, the experiences Beau and I have had on our films are always productive and enjoyable, and we set up an atmosphere where people can do their best work. I don't believe in screaming and shouting and threatening and hollering. I really dislike that enormously. I have seen it, and usually you just stand back and let them have their say until they exhaust themselves.

There was a lot of buzz on this film going into Sundance last year. Did that help or hurt it?

Oh, it helped. Positive remarks like that are welcomed, and you need that when you have so few resources to get the film out into the public. You pray for that, you want it.

And then it met with quite a few obstacles on its way to theaters. It's taken a long time. As a producer, how do you deal with that?

One is powerless to do anything, really. The company that bought it fell apart at the seams, and thank God for Mark Urban, who's risen valiantly with this film on his shoulders. The movie will be seen, it will have its day in the sun. We didn't go into this thinking we were making a blockbuster or anything. It's a quiet, beautiful chamber-piece production, something that's really deep and moving and hopefully cathartic for the audience and actors. To weep, to cry, to move people...it's as simple as that.

You're reuniting with Greg Kinnear, your costar in The Matador, for your next film Salvation Boulevard.

I play this mega-church preacher who's building his church on this hill, and Greg's my disciple. [Laughs]

What will your chemistry be like in this film?

It remains to be seen. It's an ensemble: Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Marisa Tomei, Ciarin Hinds. Anybody could steal thunder in this one, it's a well-rounded piece.

That and The Greatest are both indie movies. Some film actors aren't used to those short shoots, but you came from the television world, where you shoot a lot of pages very quickly.

Oh, yeah.

Did that teach you the discipline you needed for films like this, both as an actor and a producer?

No question. Doing episodic TV was a huge training ground. It was like doing repertory theater in the old days, where you do two or three plays a week. In TV, the process of it is that you think on your feet and you're constantly in motion and constantly learning your lines and making decisions. Some are good, some are crap, some are great, some are different. I love the world of independent filmmaking, and I've been part of it for such a long time. Every now and then, a studio gig comes along, which is fruitful, bountiful and lovely.

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