Ballymena-born actor Liam Neeson has divulged how he gave up alcohol after he found himself drinking too much in the wake of his wife’s death.
The Hollywood A-Lister also revealed that he once passed on the chance to play James Bond because Natasha Richardson, his late wife who died in a ski accident in 2009, told him not to consider it.
Speaking to
[ Men’s JournalOpens in new window ]
, he said: "I was being considered. I'm sure they were considering a bunch of other guys, too."
He confessed he would have loved to be 007, but Richardson said she would not marry him if he took the role.
"Women. Foreign countries. Halle Berry. It's understandable," he explained.
Schindler's List had just come out. "She was like, 'You're going to ruin your career,' " Neeson added. "But it's no big deal. It's nice to be inquired after."
In the interview, Neeson opens up about his upbringing as a Catholic in Ballymena in the 1950s and '60s.
"You grew up cautious, let's put it that way," he said. "Our town was essentially Protestant, but there were a few Catholics on our street. The Protestants all had marches and bands and stuff. I didn't quite understand what it was about — 'Remember 1690? When Catholic King James was defeated by Protestant William of Orange?' Who gives a f**k?"
Neeson is not sure be believes in God but says that he admires people with true faith.
"Like my mother, who's 90 and gets annoyed if she can't walk to Mass Sunday morning. 'Mom, you're 90! It's OK! God will forgive you.'”
Neeson has quit caffeine, cigarettes and drinking.
He also said that he won't get on a motorcycle after a horrific crash nearly killed him in 2000.
"I've read a couple of scripts where the character's on a motorbike, and I'm like, 'Is this important to the script?' 'Yeah, it is.' 'OK, I'm not in,' " he added.
Since Richardson’s death he tries to keep busy.
"I need to work," he says. "I'm a working-class Irishman.”
Neeson's wife Natasha Richardson died in 2009 from an epidural hematoma after a skiing accident in Canada.
They have two sons, Micheál and Daniel.
Neeson was giving the interview to promote Silence, Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited epic. It stars Andrew Garfield and Star Wars actor Adam Driver as Portuguese Jesuit priests dispatched to feudal Japan to search for a missing missionary, played by Neeson.
