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- By Emma Saunders
- Entertainment reporter in Los Angeles
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Brosnan received the Oscar Wilde Award for his contributions to the film and television industry.
Former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan has said fellow Irishman and Oscar nominee Cillian Murphy would make a “magnificent” 007.
“Cillian would do a magnificent job as James Bond in Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” Brosnan told the BBC.
Brosnan was speaking at the annual Oscar Wilde Awards, which celebrate Irish creative talent in Los Angeles.
Murphy, who also attended the event at JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions in Santa Monica, is the favorite to win the best actor award at the 96th Oscars on Sunday for his lead role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
He said that he himself had not heard the rumors about Bond and also revealed that he had not really thought about the possibility of winning the Academy Award: “I just want to go in and have a good time.”
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Murphy seemed relaxed ahead of Sunday’s Oscars
He faces Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers), Colman Domingo (Rustin), Bradley Cooper (Maestro) and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction).
Murphy also spoke about his 16-year-old son Aran, who will make his film debut in Taika Waititi’s Klara And The Sun.
“I’m very proud of him, he’s a great actor,” he told reporters on the Irish-themed green carpet, adding that Aran didn’t need his father’s advice.
Brosnan said he was “very honored” to receive the Oscar Wilde award for his contributions to the film and television industry.
He praised the “kinship” between Ireland and the United States, adding that he came to the United States in 1982 “on wing and prayer… and then got a job (on the drama series) Remington Steele.”
Speaking about his homeland’s rich talent, he told the BBC: “We come from a landscape of poetry… they are great storytellers.”
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Irish eyes smiled at the winners of this year’s awards.
This year’s other honorees were Irish visual effects supervisor Richie Baneham and Irish-American actress and comedian Molly Shannon.
Shannon, who rose to fame on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the 1990s, said she was “so moved… I feel a deep connection to Ireland.”
Baneham, a two-time Oscar winner, joked: “People keep telling me that James Bond (Brosnan) is upstaging me, but the truth is I know him as Remington Steele.”
Baneham won his first best visual effects at the Academy Awards for the 2009 film Avatar, and then scored a win in the same category last year for the long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. The director of both films, James Cameron, presented Baneham with the honor.
Baneham is also working on the third Avatar film, which will be released in December 2025.
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Man of the moment: Cillian Murphy was in demand on the green carpet
Speaking to the BBC about this year’s Oscar haul, he said he had a “soft spot” for visual effects nominee Godzilla Minus One “because it’s such a small movie.”
He described Oppenheimer as “a beast of a movie, it’s a huge task” and added: “I hope Cillian does very well (on Sunday).”
But his main advice? “Poor Things is a real winner. It’s a breath of fresh air as far as cinema goes.”
And the film has a strong Irish influence: joining its star Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos are Irish producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures.
Its 11 Oscar nominations mark a record for a film produced in Ireland.