Sound like a character the dashing Pierce Brosnan would play?

Of course not. That's exactly why the recently retired James Bond star is so perfect as anti-hero Julian Noble in the new black comedy, "The Matador." In fact, the 52-year-old Irish actor did such a good job tackling a role so completely different from the suave, likable guys he usually plays, he was honored last month with a Golden Globe nomination for best performance by an actor in a musical or comedy.

"I loved playing in this movie," the Drogheda-born actor told reporters in New York recently.

"(Writer-director) Richard Shepard came bearing gifts," said Brosnan, whose Irish DreamTime production company co-produced "The Matador."

"It happened at a very wonderful time in life; the script, the character, the performance. I thought it was wildly entertaining and it was a good read. I never knew where the story was going to twist and turn. I thought we could go away and make a cool, slick, hip independent movie and get away with it and, so far, so good. I thought there were jokes in there which the audience would get in abundance because of my past performances -- one particular performance."

In the film, the former "Remington Steele" star plays a hit-man in the midst of a mental meltdown, that is, not surprisingly, interfering with his delicate work.

While in Mexico on an assignment, the lonely assassin starts an unlikely friendship with Danny, a nice-guy salesman (played by "Stuck On You" and "As Good As It Gets" star Greg Kinnear) over margaritas in a hotel bar.

"American Splendor" and "About Schmidt" actress Hope Davis plays Bean, Danny's devoted wife, a quirky woman who is just a little too enthusiastic about Julian's work when he shows up on the couple's suburban doorstep the following Christmas.

Will Danny help Julian turn his life around or will Julian corrupt his only friend? The question isn't answered until the film's final moments.

Good for a laugh

"It just made me laugh and it surprised me," Brosnan said about the movie, which gets its title from a scene in which Julian explains to Danny the art of a good kill and likens his own career to the bloody sport of bull-fighting.

"It had humanity and a certain sincerity to it. It was twisted and dark and doing dark comedies is not easy because you're always pushing the audience away and then bringing them in and then pushing them away," he explained. "And sometimes, you can leave them out there hanging, and then you've lost them. The relationship with Danny and Bean was so sweet and loving and idyllic and tender and soulful, and then juxtaposed beside Julian's vulgarian, twisted ways. I thought it was good drama."

Although the sleazy character wolfishly talks about sleeping with underaged girls and tells a filthy joke after a heart-broken Danny reveals his young son recently died in a school-bus crash, it is Julian's unexpected vulnerability and glaring imperfections that keep the audience on his side throughout the film, the actor says.

"You try and get them from the very beginning," Brosnan confided. "(Julian is) a fellow who wakes up with some broad in the bed -- and audiences have seen Brosnan do that before. But you're overweight, messed up, not sure if you're having a heart attack or a seizure, then you paint your toenails. That dismantles everything from the get-go."

Recalling a scene in which Julian gets into an insult match with a little boy and actually tells the lad to "F--- off!" Brosnan speculates that the character suffers from arrested development.

"You know, this man is not quite all there, and you're not sure what he's looking for," the actor observed. "As an audience member, you're not even sure if Brosnan is in the right movie or not, or even in the right theatre. So, as an actor, theatrically, there is kind of a push-me, pull-me conflict. But I just loved the character. I thought he was a charming character and I thought he had great vulnerability. The killing, whatever, there is no violence. It's sort of about a man who is having a rough time, who happens to kill people."

Life after Bond

For Brosnan, a happily married family man in real life, acting is a means of temporarily trying on other men's realities, whether he plays a globe-trotting, skirt-chasing secret agent in the James Bond films, "GoldenEye," "Tomorrow Never Dies," "The World is Not Enough" or "Die Another Day," or portrays clever thieves in the heist movies like "The Thomas Crown Affair" or "After the Sunset."

"I get to live a normal, happy life with a wife and children, and then I get to go out into the world and live (a different life) in the movies. My first encounter with the movies is well-documented," Brosnan said, referring to how he fell in love with film after his stepfather took him to see his first Bond movie, "Goldfinger," when he was a little boy.

"I suppose I dreamt of being a movie star before I became an actor. It was an amazing escapism for me--love, romance, getting the girl."

Having spent more than a decade as a certified "movie star," Brosnan says he has been having fun rediscovering what it is to be an "actor" now that 37-year-old British actor Daniel Craig has officially replaced him in the James Bond franchise.

"I'm an actor, that's my job," Brosnan declared, adding that when he isn't in front of the camera, he is always himself -- even when talking to the press. "Movie star? I certainly wanted to be a part of that echelon of actors. I certainly wanted to play a movie star. I've played movie star and now I want to go back to being an actor. I have always been an actor. It's getting a performance and 'The Matador' allowed me to give a performance. It came at just the right moment in life."

Brosnan recently returned to Mexico to film David Von Ancken's new period movie, "Seraphim Falls," alongside Ballymena native Liam Neeson.

"It's a post-Civil War western," Brosnan said, explaining how the long gray hair, beard and moustache he has been sporting lately are for that role. "I play a Yankee captain. He plays a Confederate. I have no problem with facial hair. My wife, on the other hand, is not particularly partial to it at all... Liam Neeson and I are having the time of our lives -- a couple of Irishmen, a couple of paddies -- on horses with boots and guns."

Next up for Brosnan is the thriller, "Butterfly on a Wheel," a "tight little piece" he says he will co-produce, as well as star in, as a killer. Although this means the actor will be seen playing murderers in two films released within two years of each other, he insists he doesn't anticipate that hurting his career in any way or causing him to be typecast.

"Now that I have opened the lid on playing (this kind) of role, there is no going back," he noted. "But there's no reason why I can't go off and try and do 'Thomas Crown Affair 2.' I wanted to play as many things as possible. It just depends on how good the script is and how good you are in your performance."

Living many lives

So, now that his life as Secret Agent 007 is over, does Brosnan have a clear idea of what direction he'd like to see his career follow?

"I like projects that have some kind of humanity and some kind of emotional content that makes me laugh, makes me cry, makes me want to turn the page," he admitted. "Desmond Doyle of 'Evelyn,' Julian Noble of 'Matador' -- two different films -- but the same film, really, because they have a certain heartbeat to them, religion to them, faith in them. One man who is fighting for his kids and Julian is a man who is brotherless, lost and looking for life, looking for love."

Determined to live life to the fullest, the actor who also has a passion for painting says he tries to make career decisions that enable him to work hard and "live many lives."

Asked what drives him these days, he jokingly confesses it's a combination of "fear, desire, lust, ambition and money."

"That's what it's all about," he quipped. "On Tuesdays it's different than Thursdays. I have always had a strong healthy ambition and desire and certainly a passion for work and acting. I love being an actor. I love everything I have ever done. Whether the audience liked it or not was sometimes painful, sometimes not. But I just love being an actor. I love the life of acting and reading and literature. What drives me? To make good work. To make good movies and to play with the best people possible."

"The Matador" is in theaters now.