Looking to solve a mystery? You could do worse than a former James Bond, a dogged detective turned queen, an idolized world leader and a stealth jill-of-all-trades. That would be Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie, the stars of “The Thursday Murder Club,” Netflix’s adaptation of the first book in Richard Osman’s best-selling series.
The cast, all from Britain or Ireland, has appeared together in various permutations — Brosnan, 72, and Mirren, 80, on his very first movie, “The Long Good Friday” (1980), and the recent series “MobLand”; Kingsley, 81, and Mirren onstage; and Mirren and Imrie, 73, in “Calendar Girls.” And they all had an easy camaraderie as retirees in a luxe senior community who gather to investigate crimes. “It’s marvelous to have sort of a gang,” Imrie said.
The film, streaming on Netflix, was directed by Chris Columbus, best known for family fare like “Home Alone,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” (which also featured Brosnan) and the first two “Harry Potter” movies. With his production company, Maiden Voyage Pictures, Columbus has lately focused on producing for younger filmmakers like Robert Eggers (“Nosferatu”).
Columbus liked Osman’s novel more for its characters than its genre. “I never had any desire to do a murder mystery,” he said, finding the form “either procedural and very cold, or over-the-top, way too big in terms of performance. This one had incredibly sharp British humor, which I respond to, and an emotional complexity that you don’t usually see.”
In interviews in a Manhattan hotel, Brosnan and Mirren, and Columbus and Kingsley spoke about aging, first-day nerves and their real-life detective skills. Imrie chimed in by phone later, after participating in an event with the king and queen of England commemorating the 80th anniversary of V-J Day. “Did they talk about me?” she asked mischievously about her co-stars.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
The movie gives off this aura of competence — it’s very polished filmmaking.
MIRREN I hope we’re a little better than competent! That’s the starting level.
COLUMBUS I wouldn’t be offended by that at all. That says to me, thematically, what the movie’s about in a weird way, which is, competence can happen when you’re 65 or 85. [It’s] learned over the years.
KINGSLEY Each member of the quartet instinctively knew what note to play, at what timbre and when to come in.
BROSNAN There was no in-depth conversations about motivation.
MIRREN You didn’t need that. Our very deep background — theater, film — was what we brought. We’d all been in huge successes, we’d all been in terrible failures.
COLUMBUS “Thursday Murder Club” resembles “Potter” in a few ways. Working with people like [the “Potter” stars] Maggie Smith or Alan Rickman or Richard Harris, there was the opportunity to see the kind of professionalism that those actors brought to the set, by being British. It’s a little more common now, but in 2000, most of those actors did television, stage and film — they could do two or three takes, and you had what you needed.
When I came back to America, I was shocked by the laziness of American actors. I say that with respect to a lot of American actors, but that kind of muscle memory didn’t exist. So for me to be able to work with actors of that caliber [on “Thursday Murder Club”] was just staggering. I can’t talk about how wonderful it is, as a director, not to have to do 25 takes.
BROSNAN It was straight to the play.
MIRREN Our faces are so familiar to each other, and our work. And there we all are, on set the first day — the nerves are here, the energy is up there, the excitement of wanting to see what the other actors are going to do.
You still get first-day jitters?
BROSNAN The first day on a film is terrifying.
KINGSLEY It’s gladiatorial, it’s true.
MIRREN In spite of the fact that we all sort of knew each other, you never quite know, until you start, what the chemistry is going to be — between the director and the actors, the cinematographer, the first AD [assistant director].
COLUMBUS I remember talking to Steven Spielberg, whose company produced this. Steven and I worked together when I was a writer [“Gremlins,” “The Goonies”], and this is the first movie he basically produced with me directing. So I was terrified. Not only am I working with this cast, but I have to impress Steven. I had intense nervousness and — I don’t say this flippantly — I was legitimately terrified of getting fired the first two weeks.
IMRIE (whose character is an accomplished baker) At 5 in the morning on the day of the first rehearsal, I baked a chocolate cake. I’m not a good cook, but that’s about one thing I can do. And I took it into rehearsals. I mean, how’s that for sucking up to your director?
On a first night in the theater, I think I’m going to die of fright. I think my heart is going to fall out of my costume onto the floor. [But] the flip side of nerves is excitement. It can fuel you.
What is your sense of ambition like at this stage in your career?
IMRIE I remember in my early days being accused of being ambitious, and of course in England, that’s quite a rude thing to say to somebody. But actually I’ve decided it’s exactly what I am. In my book, it means I want to get better, I want to do more. And bizarrely, I’ve had quite a long wait for this caliber of film. I sort of can’t believe my luck, and I just want to keep going. Until somebody tells me to stop — which I hope they don’t, because I’ll ignore them.
COLUMBUS I’m trying to learn still. I’m 66, trying to learn why it is that most directors, when they get older, seem to peter out, start to make films that aren’t as interesting. And I can accuse myself of that on a couple of occasions. I want to see if there’s a way to get reinspired. So part of Maiden Voyage was to sit back and actually watch other directors work. I just find it energizing. When we did “Nosferatu,” I quit everything else, went to the set in Prague for eight months. Watching Eggers changed my life, it really did.
What research did you do to build your characters? Did you draw on any of your past experiences playing crime-solvers? Is there any kind of look you’ve perfected, say, when you find the culprit?
MIRREN Elizabeth [in “Thursday Murder”] is less neurotic than my character in [the British series] “Prime Suspect.” Maybe she did have the same misogynistic stuff to deal with. But she’s more centered.
KINGSLEY I did say to Chris, when [Kingsley’s character, a psychiatrist] brings his notebook out and pencil, it’s his secret weapon. That was my security blanket to my character. I think one always has to find one as an actor, a proper device.
BROSNAN I’ve done eye acting — when I was young. [Narrows eyes.] Squint Eastwood, you know.
I found myself with so many mannerisms when I was doing [the ’80s TV series] “Remington Steele,” trying to be Cary Grant. I’ve given all that up now.
I love murder mysteries — Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie. I was in one Agatha Christie movie, actually, with Liz Taylor. The first week of my cinematic career was two days on “Long Good Friday,” and then I had two days with Liz Taylor on “The Mirror Crack’d.” No dialogue. Just my head on her bosoms.
MIRREN Are you serious? Was she nice to you?
BROSNAN Absolutely lovely.
One of the movie’s themes is the idea of expertise being devalued as people get older. Do you find that to be true?
MIRREN In terms of our profession and how we’re expected to turn up and deliver, no, we don’t experience that. But one remembers being 22 and looking at a 70- or 80-year-old person and just not able to realize or compute the fact that they had sex once upon a time, they fell in love, they did everything that you as a young person are doing.
KINGSLEY In my own life, no, because I’m very privileged. But because I am privileged, I see that there’s a looming loss, in society in general, that there’s no attention paid to what’s been learned and earned in the past. That’s brought us to where we are now.
IMRIE [The V-J Day] event, which was so extraordinary, was in Staffordshire, a long way from London on the train. Now, I never make a fuss, but I had to stand all the way back for two and a half hours, because nobody decided to give up their seat. I couldn’t believe it. So if you’re asking me, do people not really notice you as you get older, I’m afraid I do notice that. Even just walking on the street, you’re not envisioned. It’s really weird. I wear a bright coat.
BROSNAN I don’t think of myself as old. I don’t think of myself as any age really. But here I am playing a man who is in an old people’s home. Mortality is circling the wagons, and there’s great poetry in that, and the mystery of it all — how you deal with getting older, the courage it takes. My mother’s 93, and she still goes out, does her shopping. Came to the set. So it was a very tender experience, making this movie. I’d look around [and see] us all with our gray hair. Am I really here? Have I reached this point in my life?
There’s a scene where [his character] goes into the [water] aerobics class with all the ladies. Having played Bond and been suave, sophisticated, the women and all that, I thought this would be lovely, going in the pool with the ladies. Then I went down and there are all these extras with their little rubber hats [swim caps]. And Chris gives me a rubber [floatie] to put around myself. I thought, “Oh, this is how it ends up.”
You have this image of yourself being this particular kind of actor and then you catch yourself in the shop window and go: “Oh my God, straighten up! Head up, shoulders up!”
MIRREN It’s all in the spine!
Do you think you’d be a good detective in real life?
BROSNAN No. I don’t have the patience.
IMRIE I do, because I’m quite obsessed with “Dateline.” I love to watch people in extreme situations trying to get out of it, seeing whether they’re lying or not. It’s just very fascinating. My first night school I signed up for was the psychology of criminology.
KINGSLEY I’m fascinated by the human condition. I know this sounds sacrilegious, but I tend not to watch a great deal of drama. I take in the drama of life, and hopefully translate it as an actor into a story. I’d make a good detective. I’d make a good psychiatrist. I would not make a very good bus driver. I know my limitations.
What’s your favorite Chris Columbus movie?
KINGSLEY “Home Alone.” [To Columbus] Is it OK if I say that?
IMRIE I loved all the “Home Alone” ones. I used to watch with my son.
BROSNAN “Home Alone” was genius.
MIRREN If it’s on, I have to watch the rest of it. I can’t stop.
COLUMBUS I love it. People were asking me why I have this connection to this British world. Everything I was obsessed with, as a kid and when I got to NYU [film school], was always British — “A Hard Day’s Night,” the Hammer horror films, David Lean’s “Great Expectations.” It led me to “Home Alone,” because the first 20 minutes are told from the point of view of the child. So watching “Great Expectations” taught me how to direct “Home Alone.”
When “Home Alone” came out, critically it was mixed, people dismissed it. But the key is longevity — that’s what you hope for.
Melena Ryzik is a roving culture reporter at The Times, covering the personalities, projects and ideas that drive the creative world.
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