Liam Neeson Explains Turning Down James Bond Role For Wife: If You Play 007, ‘We’re Not Getting Married’

Actor Liam Neeson He said that he was offered the opportunity to play James Bond He tried to get a job in the 1990s but was turned down by his wife who gave him an opportunity. “ultimatum.”

The 70-year-old Actor Barbara Broccoli, a producer, reached out several times to Neeson regarding the role after Neeson was nominated by Academy Award for Oskar Scheindler. “Schindler’s List” (1993). However, the Hollywood star explained that in this case love was more important than career.

“I know the Broccolis. They looked at a bunch of actors,” Neeson Telled Rolling Stone in an interview published February 20, 2009. 

“‘Schindler’s List’ had come out and Barbara [Broccoli] had called me a couple of times to ask if I was interested, and I said, ‘Yes, I would be interested.’ And then my lovely wife [Natasha Richardson], God rest her soul, said to me while we were shooting ‘Nell’ down in the Carolinas, ‘Liam, I want to tell you something: If you play James Bond, we’re not getting married.'”

Richardson would be teased by the actor, he said. “going behind her back, making my fingers as though I’m holding a gun, and [humming the James Bond theme].” 

“I loved doing that s***!” He joked about making fun of his wife, who was killed in 2009 after sustaining a head injury skiing.

“She gave me a James Bond ultimatum,” Neeson remembered that he declined the part. “And she meant it! Come on, there’s all those gorgeous girls in various countries getting into bed and getting out of bed. I’m sure a lot of her decision-making was based on that!”

Although he never got to play Bond, the actor made a name for his self in the action series. “Taken,” This earned Neeson an enormous amount of respect in the genre.

Neeson says, “Neeson Threatens His Daughter’s Kidnappers.” “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don’t have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you.”

The actor shared his story about how he came to be able to deliver the well-known speech from 2008 in a recent interview. “corny.”

“I certainly did sound scary, but I thought it was corny,” Neeson Telled Interview with Vanity Fair in February “It was a cornball. I really did feel that. It’s nice to be proven wrong.”

It is now one of the most cited movies in recent history. 

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