Liam Neeson has a certain skill set, but talking about women seems to be one that bothers him sometimes.
The ‘Taken’ star, who was stunned to take a pay cut so a female co-leader could get a raise – explained Rolling Stone in an interview published Monday for turning down the role of James Bond in the 1995 film “GoldenEye.”
Neeson explained to the magazine that he was “offered” the role along with several other actors. But when he told his late wife of 15 years, Natasha Richardson, about it (WHO he died in 2009 after a skiing accident at Mont Tremblant in Quebec), Neeson said he gave him a “James Bond ultimatum”.
“My dear wife, God rest her soul, said to me while we were shooting ‘Nell’ in Carolina, ‘Liam, I want to tell you something: if you play James Bond, we’re not getting married.’ So I would tease her by walking backwards, making my fingers look like I was holding a gun and then [hums the James Bond theme]. I loved doing this shit! [Laughs]”
Which, of course, is very cool. But things took a strange turn when Neeson explained why he thought his late wife didn’t want him to play the iconic role.
“James Bond gave me an ultimatum. And she meant it! Come on, there are all those beautiful girls from different countries who go to bed and get off the bed. I’m sure a lot of his decision making was based on that!” he added with a laugh.
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Neeson and Richardson seemed to be in a very happy relationship – and he kept her memory alive with plenty of sweet anecdotes about their time together.
In a 2016 episode of Sirius XM’s “My Favorite Song,” Neeson revealed that Richardson serenaded him. at their 1994 wedding to Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love.”
“Behind me, Natasha had taken singing lessons to sing them to me,” she said. “After the ceremony, we all went inside to start the night’s festivities and she took the microphone and sang it to me. I was like, “Wow.”
The ‘Marlowe’ star has also been extremely open about the pain she’s been dealing with after his sudden death.
“There are times now in our residence in New York where I hear the door open, especially in the first couple of years… every time I hear the door open, I still think I’m going to hear it,” Neeson said. on Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” in 2014.
Later, in his Rolling Stone interview, Neeson admitted that he “can’t answer” a question about how he stayed afloat after Richardson’s death.
“Life goes on. Natasha’s mother, Vanessa [Redgrave]and his sister [Joely Richardson] I moved in and had a wonderful nurse, Joanna,” he told the magazine. “People just came to help, you know? largely. And I’ll never forget it.”
