SHAKEN AND STIRRED

Pierce Brosnan Defends Divisive Irish Accent in New Series

The James Bond star is offering insight into his critically maligned accent choice.

Pierce Brosnan doesn’t care what you think about his Irish accent in MobLand. Though the actor, born in County Louth, already speaks with an Irish accent, he adopts a more exaggerated dialect for the Guy Ritchie-directed Paramount+ series, in which he stars as Conrad Harrigan, an Irish mob boss living in London. While Brosnan’s accent choice quickly earned the ire of critics, who maligned it as “over the top,” “a huge distraction,” and “particularly jarring,” the Mamma Mia star stands behind his vocal choice wholeheartedly. Speaking to Radio Times ahead of MobLand’s season finale this weekend, Brosnan, 72, explained, “My own accent is very soft. Conrad’s is a million miles away from my own.” Plus, Brosnan says he’s not entirely to blame: the actor worked closely with a dialect coach to master a new voice, as he’s from County Louth and lives primarily in California, while the character is from Kerry. “He gave me the name of a man and I Googled him, and that was it,” Brosnan told Radio Times. “It was a Kerry accent... I just gave it full tilt.”