Pierce Brosnan has played some iconic characters in his career but one of the performances he will likely forever be remembered for is his role in the Musical Mia! Brosnan’s singing is somewhat infamous in the history of movie musicals, because the fact is that he’s not the world’s greatest singer. However, he got to sing with Meryl Streep, and you didn't, so he doesn’t really care what you think.
Brosnan, who plays Dr. Fate in DC’s Black Adam on the big screen right now, spoke with NME and he was asked if he’d ever been offered the role of a musician in a biopic. Brosnan says that’s never happened, which he’s fine with, because he knows he's not hired to sing, even when he does. The only movies he’s ever sung in is Mama Mia! and its sequel. Brosnan knows his singing isn’t exactly Grammy worthy, but in those movies he says that's the joke. And he does have a platinum album because of it, and he got to sing with a cinematic icon, So F those people that have a problem. Brosnan says…
No, Mamma Mia‘s the closest I’ve got to singing and I love it. I did get a platinum album for my singing you know, so fuck the begrudgers! [chuckles again] I got to sing with Meryl Streep! It was the last thing I expected but I kind of got it. I understood the joke, the karaoke of it all. They didn’t employ me for my singing but I loved it anyway.
Pierce Brosnan knows his singing in Mamma Mia! Wasn’t the best, but he had a good time doing it, and so he’s clearly not that concerned with the perception of his performance. He lived the dream of those of us who like to sing in the shower but can’t carry a tune. If only we could all be so lucky.
Casting musicals is always a bit tricky because there may be a role that would be perfectly played by an actor who can’t sing very well, or might have songs that would sound perfect coming from a singer who’s otherwise not right for the role. There have been a handful of cases where the singing in a musical maybe wasn’t top notch. Brosnan isn’t even the worst performance in a major film musical, but he’s certainly not the best either. The fact that he is one among a large ensemble cast in Mamma Mia! certainly helps.
For the record, Pierce Brosnan says that he would love to have played Elvis on the screen had he been given the chance, and been a capable singer. That role has been played on screen multiple times, most recently by Austin Butler in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, and Brosnan is quite complimentary of that performance.
