Winter 97/98 Volume III Issue 1

Did you know that Jonathan Pryce, one of the finest actors of our time, is into bondage? It's true. Pryce - the star of Brazil, Carrington, and Evita; a Tony winner for the Broadway production of Miss Saigon; and the former, ever so classy hawker of Infiniti cars - makes life hell for Pierce Brosnan's superspy, as the villain in the latest James Bond adventure Tomorrow Never Dies. SMOKE caught up with Pryce, who lives in London with his family, to talk about bonding with 007, his commentary on Madonna, and the best joke he's heard lately.

The starting point for any Bond film is that it's got an exceptionally good script and a wonderful villain. You have to have a villain strong enough to oppose Bond, because Bond can't really exist without the villain. I play a media mogul, Elliot Carver, who has his own communications group with newspapers, satellite television stations, and global communications. The story points out the dangers of the media being in the hands of one or two people. Carver quotes William Randolph Hearst by saying, "You provide the pictures and I'll supply the war," and supply the war he does, manipulating China and Britain into becoming enemies.

I enjoyed many of them in the past, when I was much younger. I liked Connery's films. Then I drifted away from the series, until Goldeneye. I thought Pierce and that film brought the franchise right up to date. Tomorrow Never Dies continues that feeling of timeliness.

I've still got strong images of Donald Pleasance in You Only Live Twice. I also liked Gert Frobe in Goldfinger. I saw Goldfinger very recently on tape, so that one very much sticks out in my mind.

It's wonderful. Carver is so extravagant. At one point, he makes a broadcast to tell people that the expansion of his empire is not for profit. It's for the good of mankind. That dialogue is so intelligent, so fun to play You also see his sinister side when he dispatches his henchmen to kill people and deals with his wife (Teri Hatcher) quite brutally.

(Laughs) If only she hadn't had this relationship with Bond, everything would have been OK. But she betrays me, and I don't like people betraying me.

I don't know if I got screwed (laughs). From your question, I take it you thought I did, and thank you. It was a long horse race. It was interesting to be in England and watch all the predictions come out of America. I was in the frame for a while, but didn't make the finishing post. It was disappointing. I'd had great reaction to the film itself, and winning Best Actor at Cannes was very nice for a European actor.

I'd always been an enormous fan of Alan Parker. He's a wonderful filmmaker, and I thought Evita was an example of extraordinary filmmaking. It was greatly enhanced by Madonna's performance. She works incredibly hard and I thought she brought a great deal to the film. if I have any criticism of Evita, it's that I felt frustration that it was a musical written 20-odd years ago that was not updated with hindsight. It stayed locked in one time frame, or a perception of one time frame.

It deals with an institution in Scotland at which officers during the First World War were treated for war neurosis and shell shock. Unlike lower-ranking officers, who were usually treated brutally with electroconvulsive therapy, higher-ranking officers were treated by a team of doctors, amongst them William Rivers, one of the first psychotherapists in Britain. The film is seen through the eyes of Rivers and we see his dilemmas at dealing with people who have neuroses, as he tries to make them whole again, only to send them back onto the battlefield. The film is very timely. It asks if we learn from the things we do, the wars we wage, the people we meet.

It's a great mix. I did the Infiniti commercials for four years and they stopped showing them around the end of 1996, so that's died off a bit. The people who live in New York and know Broadway recognize me for Miss Saigon. All these years later, people still want to talk to me about Brazil. That's a film that continues to find new audiences. Every so often, people recognize me for Carrington, and that's quite satisfying, I must say.

I've got one. It's probably well out of date, but what did Mike Tyson say to Van Gogh?

You're not going to throw that one away, are you? (laughs)