Pierce Brosnan's first day as James Bond was affected by an unfortunate injury, but he had an ingenious fix: "I shouldn't be even telling you this"

Pierce Brosnan as James Bond
(Image credit: EON)

Every actor that has picked up the license to kill and taken on the role of James Bond has had to take a few hits, but former 007 Pierce Brosnan might be one of the only ones to have caused issues on the first day of filming, thanks to injuries he got before he even started.

Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert about his upcoming show, MobLand, Brosnan shared some stories about his days working for MI6 and how his little finger created what could've been a big problem in his first Bond movie, Goldeneye. "I had actually just had hand surgery, to tell you the truth. I had sliced this tendon open at home, so I'd been in a splint for about 12 weeks, and I got it off the first morning of shooting James Bond. Six-page scene, and I could hardly move my hand."

Keeping in line with his new hero status, though, Brosnan powered through. "The very first shot is the camera following Robbie Coltrane, and he comes behind a curtain, and I point the gun to his head, and he says, 'Only three men in the world own that weapon, and I've killed two of them.' So we went for the take, and my finger went, 'toot' — like this," with Brosnan's little finger involuntarily sticking out as if he was drinking tea with the Queen rather than serving on Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Thankfully, director Martin Campbell was quick to address the issue. “I shouldn't be even telling you this, but anyway, Martin Campbell was the director, and he said, 'Let's go again. Let’s go again.’ Same line, finger just went like that. So, I got a Band-Aid, and I stuck it to the gun. And that was it, problem solved." With the issue addressed, Brosnan was able to carry on and give us one of the best Bond films of his beloved run. To see where Goldeneye sits in our ranking of James Bond movies, head here and prepare to be shaken or stirred by the results.

Nick Staniforth
Contributing Writer

Nick is a freelancer whose work can be found at Screen Rant, The Digital Fix, and Looper. He loves movies, TV, DC, and Marvel. He also believes that the best Robin Hood is still a talking fox.

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