Personal encounters of the Brosnan kind…

So, I live in the Netherlands and have online friends who tell me things. A Pierce Brosnan fan in the US told me that Brosnan would be attending the film premiere of his new film “The November Man” in Oostende (Belgium) which is a little over 2 hours away by car from where I live. Worth a shot, I thought! A friend of mine who lives close by and is a big Pierce Brosnan fan as well (though not as big as Eaz – no one is a bigger fan than Eaz!) agreed to come with me.

So, off we went on Sunday afternoon (September 14th) for our long drive. Luckily never a dull moment with my friend as we chatted forever and had a lot of laughs. We arrived in Oostende a little later than anticipated, at about 6.30 p.m. (red carpet was supposed to start at 7). We found one of the last spots right along the barricade and waited. We heard that Pierce was at the nearby beach unveiling a star on the boardwalk walk of fame there. No time to go there, as we’d then have to forsake our current spot @ the red carpet. So we stayed put, talked a bit with another fan (a man, a little younger than us I think) and joked around while waiting. We probably made fools of ourselves laughing about my friend’s Claddagh ring on her middle finger and how that could attract the wrong kind of attention when being shown around in a certain way… Needless to say, time really flew by! 😉 We had waited for over an hour (less long than other fans) when Pierce finally did arrive at 7.40 p.m…. apparently the walk of fame thing had taken longer than planned.

In the distance: Pierce Brosnan gets out of the car! You can recognize him by the white shirt and sharp suit.

Pierce didn’t have the full 30 minutes on the red carpet, I think he did the whole thing in maybe 10 minutes or less? He didn’t have time to engage in much conversation. He looked extremely well dressed and sharp in his well-tailored dark blue suit and very white shirt. Very very handsome to look at! I swear, he is one of those men that gets better with age… I like him more now than I ever did as James Bond…

Anyway, to get back to the red carpet: Pierce zigzagged along, trying to cover both sides of the red carpet fairly. Luckily he was on our side when he got really close! I was so focused on pictures, I didn’t really get around to asking for an autograph. He was going quite quickly too. He skipped many people who held out things for him to sign, he just didn’t have the time…

He signed something for the couple to the right of me and was about to turn away to go to the other side again when my friend (to the left of me) called out to say “Pierce, I have all your films! Could I have your autograph as well?”

And so Pierce went to my friend and signed the picture she held out for him! In response to her saying that she had all his films, he replied “I hope you’ll enjoy this film as well” (or something like that) and right after that he turned away to sign stuff at the other side.

In the original non-cropped image you can see my friend as well (you can now only see her hand), so she is in a picture with Pierce! Yay! The lady with the white scarf is Beau St. Clair, Pierce’s production partner

When we looked to the picture he had signed for my friend we saw that he had signed his name and drawn a quick peace sign on it as well! We totally loved that! Later my friend in the US told me:

 “I’ve found that for professional autograph seekers, he only signs his name – and not very legible at times.  For those who are fans, he usually adds something “extra” at the end of his signature. […] I think it’s his way of letting you know that he knows you are a fan and thanking you for that.” 

So, yay us!

At the other side not far opposite from us there was a little old lady in the crowd and Pierce leaned in and hugged her. Awww. He was gone soon after that… and the doors opened for the cinema. Of course we had tickets!

The film was shortly introduced by a filmfestival employee who told us that Pierce and his production partner Beau St. Clair would be coming to speak to us after the screening. Yesssss…… So, we watched the film which was pretty gritty and bloody and which we really liked. Pierce was very good in it. Again, the man gets better with age!! Then right after the screening Pierce and Beau came in. They were shortly interviewed. I didn’t take many pics as we were so far off but I did try to film to catch what was being said. Sadly the camera died and my phone froze so I have yet to see if I have anything that can be used…  I so need a better camera for these occasions! The thing has let me down when I met Richard Armitage and now again..

Pierce thanked the audience at the end of the interview and he and Beau were awarded a good round of applause and a standing ovation as they left.

The movie was showing on two screens, ours was the first screening, the other ended about 15 minutes after ours. When we left we immediately were caught in the crowd for the people waiting for Pierce to exit from the second screening. We didn’t have a good view of him then and the pics I have of him from when he came out are so far away and blurry you can’t really see anything. Also, he had his back to where we were standing, but his suit and the white collar of his shirt did stand out! He was whisked out of the building soon after and we didn’t see him anymore after that.

We left the cinema, posed on the red carpet ourselves for a picture, and then we went to the boardwalk to try and find Pierce’s newly unveiled star on the walk of fame. Or more precisely – un-sanded… The star was covered with sand when we found it. But we cleared off the sand and here it is!

We didn’t get home again till close to 2 am – and I had to work the next morning! It was tough getting up again… but it was well worth the trip seeing Pierce Brosnan for real and accompanied by a lovely friend. There is nothing more a girl could wish for… 🙂