Steven Spielberg helped Daniel Day-Lewis score another Oscar win after casting the actor in his critically acclaimed project Lincoln . However, before Day-Lewis, Neeson was heavily sought after for the role. But Neeson quickly had an epiphany that Lincoln wasn’t for him.
How Liam Neeson turned down ‘Lincoln’ Neeson almost collaborated with Spielberg again after their Schindler’s List days . The actor was strongly considered to play Abraham Lincoln in the titular feature. But this went beyond just small talks about doing the feature.
In a 2010 interview with GQ , Neeson went as far as to read the script for the movie. “Steven had approached me to play it—f***, it must be ten years ago. Sent me a script, and I was like, ‘God.
’ And he told me roughly when he might want to shoot it, so I started researching. I maybe did four years’ worth of research,” Neeson said. Neeson shared that he eventually received a revised version of the script that seemed to be similar to the movie Spielberg and Day-Lewis did.
Neeson would do a table reading with other actors. And it was here that he realized he might’ve not been fit for the job. “I want to think it was toward the end of April, Steven got together a reading, and we all sat: Sally Field, John Lithgow.
Oh, just great actors. And Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Steven, of course. 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.
I t.
