Pierce Brosnan has been sacked as James Bond. But the suave British actor says he couldn't be happier because he hated the character's phony one-liners and he can now play more complex roles.

Brosnan revealed the end of his era as the British super spy in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in which he said that producers informed him of their decision in a quick phone call.

"One phone call, that's all it took!" the 52-year-old actor told the magazine for its Aug 19 issue.

Brosnan starred in four Bond films starting with "GoldenEye" in 1995, and continuing with "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997), "The World Is Not Enough" (1999) and "Die Another Day" (2002).

Though his sacking was initially a "titanic jolt to the system", it was followed by "a great sense of calm", because he never really liked the role, he said.

"It never felt real to me. I never felt I had complete ownership over Bond. Because you'd have these stupid one-liners which I loathed and I always felt phony doing them," Brosnan said.

"I thought... I can do anything I want to do now. I'm not beholden to them or anyone. I'm not shackled by some contracted image. So there was a sense of liberation."