Add The California Post on Google Pierce Brosnan is ready to say goodbye to his slice of Malibu paradise, after decades of dodging wildfires, worrying about earthquakes and shelling out a fortune to keep his sprawling $100 million compound afloat.
The former James Bond star, 73, and wife Keely Shaye Smith, 62, are preparing to move on from the spectacular oceanfront estate they have called home for more than two decades, with Brosnan admitting that life along California’s famously volatile coastline has begun to lose some of its luster.
“We’ve been spared by the fires a few times now. But I think it’s time to move,” Brosnan told The Times. “Everything changes, everything falls apart.”
The actor said living beside the Pacific Ocean, in an area vulnerable to earthquakes and devastating wildfires, has created an underlying sense of unease.
“We live by this body of earth’s water on a fault in a ring of earthquakes. That creates a fear,” he told the outlet.
Malibu was hammered by the catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025, which destroyed the homes of celebrities including Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton and Jeff Bridges.
Brosnan’s own home has already had a frightening brush with flames. In 2015, a fire erupted in the property’s garage while the actor and his family were home, causing an estimated $1 million in damage.
Now Mother Nature is once again rattling Malibu’s millionaire playground.
A monster sinkhole recently tore through Sea Level Drive, a private beachfront road in an exclusive enclave associated with wealthy residents including Nicolas Cage.
The collapse ballooned to an estimated 25 to 30 feet deep and roughly 30 by 60 feet wide, cutting off the road’s only entrance and exit and forcing evacuations.
Cage’s $10.5 million, four-story oceanfront mansion was left alarmingly close to the crater.
“I don’t think this is a single, isolated event for Malibu,” City Manager Joseph Irvin warned.
Brosnan also acknowledged that maintaining his extravagant California lifestyle hasn’t come cheap.
The actor said there have been periods during his career when mortgage payments and school costs for his sons made landing his next role a financial necessity.
“There are definite moments of, oh, this boat is not quite sinking, but [it might] if we don’t get a job soon,” he told The Times.
That sometimes meant accepting projects he wasn’t particularly passionate about.
“You make the commitment because you need the money, then you show up on time and do good work,” Brosnan admitted.
Brosnan and Smith created their Southeast Asian-inspired estate after purchasing two neighboring Broad Beach properties for a combined $7.35 million in 2000.
Spread across more than an acre, the compound reportedly contains two residences totaling five bedrooms and a staggering 14 bathrooms.
Its centerpiece, dubbed the “Orchid House,” spans nearly 12,500 square feet and took more than a decade to complete. The lavish spread includes a movie theater, gym, music room, spa and climate-controlled wine cellar with room for roughly 200 bottles.
The couple has previously tested the market, at one point offering the property as a $120,000-per-month rental and later listing the compound for sale before pulling it off the market in 2021.
Brosnan and Smith currently divide their time between Malibu and Kauai, Hawaii and the islands increasingly appear to have won his heart.
“I love Malibu,” Brosnan previously told The Wall Street Journal, saying the California beach community “has my heart.”
But he added that “home is very much here in the islands.”
After 26 years and more than a few close calls, Bond may finally be ready to make his Malibu escape permanent.
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