Liam Neeson asked Steven Spielberg to dismiss him from a film after a table reading
Steven Spielberg and Liam Neeson worked together on the 1993 classic “Schindler’s List” (seen above). The film tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who hopes to keep his factories open while the Nazi party comes to power in Germany. He reimburses Nazi managers to employ Jewish workers, effectively protecting them from Nazi death camps. It takes a while to realize that he does something heroic. He soon begins to overcome his factories, obviously saving as many Jews as possible. At the end of the war, he would have saved around 1,200 people.
Neeson’s performance was sensitive and tragic, and this has earned the actor his sole appointment to the Oscars to date. It seemed logical that Neeson and Spielberg wish to work together again at some point, but it took many years for the appropriate project to manifest. In 2005, Variety was reported that the project had been found. Neeson was to play Abraham Lincoln in the new Biography of Spielberg of the 16th President of the United States of America. It was then that the director was still turning his remake of “War of the Worlds”, so the film was still a little further in the future of Spielberg.
As we know now, Spielberg’s “Lincoln” would not have been released before the last months of 2012, and he ended up with Daniel Day-Lewis. It is a delay of seven years and a major change in casting. Between the announcement of the variety and “Lincoln”, Spielberg would make “Munich”, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull”, “The Adventures of Tintin” and “War Horse”. During this race, “Lincoln” mutated a little and Neeson would abandon. As reported / film, Neeson left “Lincoln” in 2010. At the time, he said that he had “exceeded his date of sale”.
However, Neeson clarified his feelings on “Lincoln” and the reason why he abandoned, in a 2014 interview with GQ. Very briefly, he estimated that he was too old for the role.
Liam Neeson felt that he was too old to play Abraham Lincoln
It seems that Neeson has always been Spielberg’s second choice. According to a 2016 article in the New York Times, Daniel Day-Lewis was approached by Spielberg in 2003 about playing Abraham Lincoln. Day-Lewis refused the game at the time, feeling that he was particularly poorly suited to the role. Spielberg seemed to hell to have an Irish actor playing the role, and went to Neeson afterwards. Back in GQ’s interview, Neeson said he remembered having been contacted about “Lincoln”, and he was amazed. In his words:
“Steven had approached me to play it … F ***, it must be ten years ago. Sent me a script, and I said to myself:” God “. And he told me about it when he could want to shoot him, so I started looking for.
Neeson has been part of the project for so long that the script has changed hands. The original version of “Lincoln”, he said, was a more traditional biopic, written by playwright Paul Webb. “From its inauguration to his death,” said Neeson. When the scriptwriter Tony Kushner took over a project, the objective has shrunk for the passage of the 13th amendment and the last months of Lincoln’s life. Very slowly, other actors were added to a list, and Spielberg finally organized a table reading in 2009. It was during the table reading that Neeson – who had recently lost his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, to a ski accident – realized that he was not going to be able to do it. He said:
“Steven gathered a reading, and we all sat down: Sally Field, John Lithgow. Oh, just big actors. And [Lincoln biography author] Doris Kearns Goodwin and Steven, of course. We started reading this, and there was an intro, then I see “Lincoln:” Where I have to start talking, and I … I … a moment Thunderbolt. I thought, “I’m not supposed to be here. Let’s go. I passed my date of sale. I don’t want to play this Lincoln. I can’t be him. ‘”
Neeson was convinced.
Reading Lincoln’s table went well, but Neeson did not feel it
Neeson said that the table read Apace, and that he loved the script, but in a very abstract way, he did not feel it. He could even have been distracted by his own sadness of losing his wife less than two months earlier. Whatever reason, the role of “Lincoln” did not feel well in his hands. “It was a very strange feeling, and it was partly sorrow,” he said. After reading, all the potential co-stars of Neeson said that he was excellent and that he was well suited for the role, but Neeson did not agree. The actor continued:
“Thereafter, Steven came, and I said,” Steven, you have to redesign this now. “And he said,” What are you talking about? “And I said:” I am seriously. So I went home, and I called Doris, and I had a little conversation with her. And that is all. ”
Shortly after, as reported by The Guardian in 2010, Day-Lewis was thrown into the role, and everything was fine with the world. The story remained that Neeson, by coincidence, suggested that Spielberg calls Day-Lewis, not knowing that the pair had already spoken. Spielberg then called Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of his 2002 film “Catch Me If you can”, and asked him that he calls Day-Lewis, because they both appeared together in the “Gangs of New York” by Martin Scorsese. Day-Lewis was finally used and took the role.
Day-Lewis ended up winning an Oscars for “Lincoln”, which was also nominated 11 Oscars, including the best film, the best director and the best scenario. It can also be one of the best in Spielberg. Neeson abandoned, but everything turned out to be better.
