Actor Liam Neeson recounts almost accepting an offer to play the role of James Bond in the mid-90s and turning it down at his partner’s insistence.
Liam Neeson revealed that he once considered playing the coveted role of James Bond — at least until his wife dissuaded him.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Neeson recounted how after his Oscar-nominated performance in 1993’s Schindler’s List he was contacted by Eon Film producer Barbara Broccoli about taking over the role of Agent 007.
He was interested but ultimately turned it down at the urging of his partner, actor Natasha Richardson, who threatened that she wouldn’t marry him if he took the job.
“And she meant it!” he explained. “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!”
Neeson and Richardson married in 1994 and stayed together until Richardson’s tragic death from a skiing accident in 2009.
The Search for a New James Bond
In the end, Pierce Brosnan took over as Bond and starred in four films (Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day) from 1995-2002. He was succeeded as Bond by Daniel Craig, who played the character in five movies across sixteen years.
Popular fan picks to fill the role include Idris Elba, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Henry Cavill, Dan Stevens and Charlie Cox.
Another actor whose name is in the mix, Taron Egerton, has expressed a belief that Eon has already found the new Bond and is waiting to announce who it is.
While the reveal of the next Bond may be far off, Broccoli broke down what will be required of Eon’s next star. “Any actor that would be thinking about this has got to think about how it would change their life,” she explained. “Daniel certainly was reluctant when we first approached him and as I say about him, his life changed, but he did not change. He’s always been the same amazingly wonderful human being at the beginning as he is now. You become an ambassador for the cinema and people recognize you as being associated with the character. It’s got a lot of different elements to it. But the time commitment is certainly a long-term commitment, and not everybody is willing to do that — multiple pictures over many years. Daniel’s done 16 years time.”
Since Schindler’s List, Neeson has gone on to take roles in other blockbuster franchises, including Ra’s al-Ghul in The Dark Knight Trilogy, Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (he briefly reprised the role last year on the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Bryan Mills in the Taken Trilogy. He’s currently set to star in the upcoming films Retribution, In the Land of Saints and Sinners and Thug.
All James Bond films are available to stream on HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video.
