By KBC Associate :max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/Mobland-44_02272025-5fe83ef4b04e4b6c8bd1eedf1cdccff0.jpg?ssl=1 "Pierce Brosnan Responds After He’s Roasted for His Irish Accent in ‘MobLand’")
NEED TO KNOW
- Pierce Brosnan attempted a Kerry accent for his role as Irish mob boss Conrad Harrigan in Paramount+’s MobLand, but it has not been all that well-received
- A particularly harsh critique came from The Irish Times, which called the accent a “horror for the ages” that could “scupper his national treasure status”
- Now, Brosnan — who was born in Ireland but moved to England when he was 12 — has weighed in on the controversy
Pierce Brosnan knows what people are thinking.
The Irish-born actor plays a mob boss in Paramount+’s MobLand, and his character Conrad Harrigan is supposed to be from Kerry in the southwest of Ireland, but fans haven’t been sold on his Irish roots — and neither have Irish people.
The Irish Times blasted his attempt at a Kerry accent as a “horror for the ages” and said that any “hard work” the actor did to prepare for the role had “sadly been in vain.”
The outlet went as far as to assert that the “terrible accent” could lead Brosnan, 72, to “scupper his national treasure status,” given he spent the first decade of his life living in Ireland.
Fans online were equally transparent with their critiques. “Pierce Brosnan [must] be the only person in existence who was born and raised in Ireland to Irish parents that can’t pull off an Irish accent. And he’s an actor! Embarrassing stuff, someone should’ve told him,” wrote one person in a post on X.
Luke Varley/Paramount+
Now, the Mamma Mia! star has weighed in on the controversy. When asked by Radio Times about the criticisms, Brosnan said his “own [Irish] accent is very soft” and that his character’s “accent is a million miles away from me.”
He shared that a dialect coach had recommended that Brosnan follow the lead of an unnamed but well-known Kerry man.
“I told [the dialect coach] that I needed a Kerry accent, so he gave me the name of a man, and I Googled the guy and that was it. It was a Kerry accent,” he told the outlet. “And so, I just gave it full tilt.”
Brosnan stars in the series alongside Helen Mirren, who plays his wife Maeve and also has an Irish twang, Tom Hardy, Paddy Considine and Joanne Froggatt.
MobLand marks the second project the actor has worked on with Mirren, 79, in the last year — they’ll star in The Thursday Murder Club with Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie in August — which has led them to develop “a friendship and a relationship that was completely unexpected.”
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Luke Varley/Paramount+
He called Mirren “someone who I’ve admired for so many years” in an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the MobLand recent premiere, and said they’ve “become good pals.”
“She’s just a magnificent actress, really, and a great woman. Really cool.”
New episodes of MobLand premiere Sundays on Paramount+.