Liam Neeson’s worst decision: when he gave up the role of a lifetime with Spielberg and his replacement won the Oscar

The great actors and actresses of Hollywood make good and bad decisions that can forever mark their careers in film, even losing the opportunity to win an Oscar, as happened to Robert De Niro in the late 70s. Something similar happened to Liam Neeson, the famous actor of films like ‘Schindler’s List’—a’ film for which he was nominated for an Oscar as Best’ Actor—'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,’ ‘Batman Begins,’ or the ‘Taken’ saga, among many others. So much so that Steven Spielberg chose Neeson to star in ‘Lincoln,’ the celebrated biopic about the historic President of the United States during the Civil War in the mid-nineteenth century. However, the British actor resigned from the role when the situation overcame him, leading his replacement, Daniel Day-Lewis, to win the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance.

The dark side of Liam Neeson in Hollywood

Liam Neeson was Steven Spielberg’s first choice to give life to Abraham Lincoln in the 2012 film ‘Lincoln.’ Not in vain, the two had already worked together in 1993 with the award-winning ‘Schindler’s List,’ in which the filmmaker won two Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, with Neeson nominated for Best Actor. That is why the director of ‘Jurassic Park’ saw in Neeson the perfect actor to play the famous American president, as he let him know in 2005, when he was already thinking about that film.

Neeson, as he explained to GQ in 2014, was enthusiastic about the idea, so he spent the next four years documenting such a relevant historical figure. However, with the entry of a new screenwriter, Tony Kushner, everything changed. Instead of explaining Lincoln’s entire life, the new project would focus on the last months of the president’s life: “We started reading this, and there was an intro, and then I see “Lincoln:” where I have to start speaking, and I just—a thunderbolt moment,” Neeson explained.

“I thought, ‘I’m not supposed to be here. This is gone. I’ve passed my sell-by date. I don’t want to play this Lincoln. I can’t be him,’” the actor went on to explain about the decision to leave the project after the change in focus of the feature film. In addition, Neeson assured that he never felt comfortable with the script readings: “I just was cringing with embarrassment. Afterward, Steven came over, and I said, ‘Steven, you have to recast this now.’ And he said, ‘What are you talking about?’ And I said, ‘I’m serious,’” Neeson admitted.

“So I went back home, and that night I called Doris [historian Doris Kearns Goodwin] and I had a wee chat with her. And then I called Steven, and I said, ‘Steven, this is not for me. I can’t explain it. It’s gone. It’s not...’ And he got it. He said, ‘Okay.’ And that was it,” Neeson concluded of the missed opportunity to be Lincoln in the film of the same name.

However, things took a turn for the worse for Neeson when he saw that his replacement, Daniel Day-Lewis, won the Oscar for Best Actor for the leading role in ‘Lincoln.’ Still, the actor was respectful to the actor who somehow snatched the Oscar from him: “He’s fuckin’ Abraham Lincoln. This is perfect,” he said of Daniel Day-Lewis. Since then, Neeson has focused his career on the action genre, with the ‘Taken’ saga as the main protagonist of his filmography, along with other similar films.

‘Lincoln’ can be watched in the U.S. via Hulu.

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