Though some feel he’s been slumming it, and the man himself has said several times of late that he thinks he’s too old to do more of these roles [but seems happy to carry on doing them as long as people want to see him in this manner, plus I expect the solid paychecks] I personally love Liam Neeson’s late career renaissance as an action hero in Taken, Taken 2, The A-Team, Unknown,The Grey, and his latest hit Non-Stop, with Run All Night in the can and Taken 3 shooting at he moment. However, it seems that he could have become an action star much earlier in his career.
Speaking with Hull Daily Mail (via Dark Horizons), Neeson reveals he was pursued for one of the most famous and popular movie franchise roles ever, that of James Bond. He says:
“I was heavily courted, let’s put it that way, and I’m sure some other actors were too. It was about 18 or 19 years ago and my wife-to-be [Natasha Richardson] said, ‘If you play James Bond we’re not getting married!’ And I had to take that on board, because I did want to marry her.”
This would have been between Timothy Dalton’s second and final 007 film Licence To Kill and Pierce Brosnan’s first Bond outing Goldeneye, where there was a big gap between Bond movies and a huge number of contenders were looked at for the role that eventually went to Brosnan. Neeson. Gotta love him. His special set of skills even extending to being the model husband, or fiancee.
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