Liam Neeson says he passed up a chance to play James Bond after Natasha Richardson gave him an ultimatum
Liam Neeson says when he was toying with the idea of portraying 007 his late wife told him: "‘If you play James Bond, we’re not getting married.'”
Aux News Liam Neeson
Between Star Wars and Taken, Liam Neeson is no stranger to a major franchise. But there’s one classic IP he never put his name on: James Bond. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the Marlowe star reveals that’s no coincidence: Neeson says he was actually contacted multiple times in the 1990s to play 007 by Bond producer Barbara Broccoli. Fresh off an Oscar nomination for Schindler’s List, Neeson was primed for another big-ticket role—but he turned the prospect down at the behest of a very special someone.
“I know the Broccolis. They looked at a bunch of actors,” Neeson shares with Rolling Stone’s Marlow Stern. “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.”
Naturally, Neeson says he didn’t adhere to his wife’s wishes before having a little bit of fun with her over the request. “I would tease her by going behind her back, making my fingers as though I’m holding a gun, and then [here, Neeson begins to hum the James Bond theme]. I loved doing that shit!”
Richardson, who died tragically in 2009 after a skiing accident, isn’t here today to speak to her anti-007 motivations. But Neeson has a few theories as to why she wasn’t so sold on the idea of him playing the international casanova—but no matter what inspired her, Neeson says she was serious about it.
“She gave me a James Bond ultimatum. And she meant it!” Neeson recalls. “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!”
24 Comments
That was for the better
You don’t think he’d’ve been a good Bond? I think he would’ve. They could’ve given Bond a daughter, and Blofeld could kidnap her.
Taken, not stirred.
Because you think he would have been a bad choice, or because you think Craig was a better one? I am a huge fan of the Daniel Craig take on Bond, but I do think Neeson would have been great at it as well.
He said he got the offer while filming Nell, so he would have gotten it instead of Brosnan, not Craig.
Ah, good point. Even though at the time I thought Brosnan would be a good Bond, in the end I was not a fan of his films. I do feel like Neeson might have done a better job.
I did a marathon watch of the Brosnan Bond films last year and it reminded me that Goldeneye started out his run strong, and then it just devolved into Roger Moore era Bond gadgetry way too quickly. I have a feeling that if Neeson had done that run it wouldn’t have made any difference.
Maybe Natasha Richardson had a premonition the films would end up sucking?
Given how Daniel Craig used to moan about it, maybe he made the right decision.
I’d probably do whatever Natasha Richardson told me to do too.
I’d say no to skiing.
I’d gently suggest she try water skiing instead.
She told Neeson to go out there and beat up some black rapists
limp
I mean, he got to marry Natasha Richardson, so he clearly made the right choice.
Maybe it was about the Bond girls, but I can think of other reasons why at the time Richardson might not have been on board with Neeson playing 007. For starters, if we’re talking about post-Schindler’s List, that was a sort of interregnum for Bond movies. Coming off the two middling Timothy Dalton films, the Bond franchise was anything but a surefire hit. If anything, I would say it would have been a risky choice. Dalton’s films abandon the camp of previous Bond films, but also lose the suaveness and humor of Bond himself. They’re just not as fun, and I could see prospective Bond actors having real concerns about the direction of the franchise. Was it going to return to the campy Bond films of previous eras, bringing along with it the problematic elements (ala imperialism and gender politics) present in those films? If so, do you want to be the face of that? Or was the franchise going to move forward in a new direction, which Dalton’s films tried and weren’t very successful in doing? How would the new Bond films successfully navigate this transition? If the producers didn’t have a strong idea of what that Bond would look like, then I could see having reservations. I think when you look at what came next—Pierce Brosnan’s four Bond films—I think you see the results of that uncertaintly about what the franchise could/should be. GoldenEye is pretty good, but the other three swing from pedestrian to very silly to cringeworthy. Being Bond didn’t exactly do wonders for Dalton or Brosnan’s careers. If you’re coming off of an Oscar nomination, then you might be thinking about other, more sure-fire, prestige projects, not a franchise that seemed to be in search of an identity in the early 90s.
Yeah.. I think Brosnan was a good Bond, but overall-good movies in which to be Bond had been hit-and-miss for some time and would continue to be.
I, too, can be verbose.
Wait, you think you know Liam Neeson’s wife’s objections to him playing Bond than Liam Neeson does?
He was interviewed by Marlow Stern about his role as Marlowe. I am hoping that led to some Abbott & Costello type comedic confusion.
I can really relate to how Neeson wants to go around smashing black thugs in the face.
limp
James Bond being blonde is something that the public was able to eventually get over.But James Bond being tall? They’d never accept that.
It’s a shame she didn’t tell him that he wasn’t allowed to be a racist asshole.