Director David Von Ancken, Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson at a press conference for "Seraphim Falls". (CP PHOTO/Aaron Harris)

TORONTO (CP) - Pierce Brosnan's days of dodging bullets as Agent 007 were an apparent cakewalk compared to the "treacherous" conditions he and actor Liam Neeson faced on the set of their new film, "Seraphim Falls."

"It was pretty brutal, actually," the former James Bond star said at a news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the western epic is debuting. "It was terrifying," said Neeson.

"Seraphim Falls," the feature directorial debut from David Von Ancken, is a Western saga set in the 1860s, five years after the end of the U.S. Civil War.

Neeson plays a southern colonel who vows revenge on a northerner and former Union Army captain (Brosnan), whom he blames for a major act of atrocity at the tail end of the war. The film also stars Angie Harmon and Angelica Huston.

Filming took place over 48 days last year in Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico, and although Neeson and Brosnan - both from Ireland - felt it was a dream come true to be in a western, they suffered from the rigorous terrain of Santa Fe.

"It was thirsty work, that's for sure," said Brosnan of filming with mounds of heavy western attire in the desert last fall.

Their solution? "A good night in the bar at the end of a long day," said Brosnan.

Then there was the chase, which was central to the movie.

Brosnan's character had to run on foot for most of the pursuit in the Santa Fe mountains, where the altitude "kind of took the stuffing out of you a bit the first two weeks," he said.

The on-set conditions in Oregon in January of this year were equally extreme.

There, Brosnan, fastened on a tether, had to jump off a waterfall taller than Niagara Falls into a river in temperatures as cold as -36 C - something even the Navy Seals who were in the area wouldn't do, said Von Ancken.

"The ... people we had with us to protect everybody said the life expectancy in the river was four minutes without a dry suit on," said the director, who also co-wrote the script.

"And so Pierce had his modified dry suit on but he ... exposed (his) hands, feet, face."

Neeson didn't have it so bad.

"Pierce ... he had to get in the water quite a few times and be naked and stuff," said Neeson, whose film credits include "Schindler's List" and "Kinsey."

"I always had my bear skin coat on. He had it rougher than I did."

Brosnan said it was a "fearsome" time but it made acting easy and provided another opportunity to shake his Bond affiliation.

"I suppose I'd kind of painted myself into a corner there with suave and debonair," he said.

"And it's time to get out there and do a bit of acting. Look for a bit of character work.