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09:00am ET, 14-October-04

Brosnan: No More 007

Pierce Brosnan confirmed to the Toronto Sun newspaper that he did not quit his most famous role as agent James Bond: He was fired. And there is no going back, he told the newspaper. "It's over. It's over. It's absolutely over," Brosnan said.

Brosnan said that he was willing and eager to do a fifth and final Bond, adding that 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson had asked him to return, although no contracts were signed. Brosnan's last Bond movie, Die Another Day in 2002, was the 20th official installment in the franchise, which started with Sean Connery in Dr. No in 1962, the newspaper reported.

"They invited me back right before I went to present that film, before I went on the road with Halle Berry to sell the movie," Brosnan said. "They said: 'We're so happy with the success. We want you to come back!' I went on the road a happy man, you know? I thought we'd get a fifth and no more. That would be it, really. I'd done it. You get bored. You get older. You give of yourself to something and then you have no more to give. But I thought a fifth would be good. And then one day the phone rang—I was here [in Nassau, Bahamas, shooting After the Sunset]—and my agents told me that the goalposts had moved and that they had changed their minds."

Brosnan added, "It's very hard to find the truth in that town [Hollywood] or in this business at times. But it was their prerogative to change their minds. They can do it." And they might have done it "to go younger," Brosnan added. "It was disappointing. It was surprising. And I accepted the knowledge after 24 hours of being in shock."