Liam Neeson Prepared To Play This Iconic President for Years Before Dropping Out — And We Can’t Blame His Reasoning

Liam Neesonknows how to make a proclamation, notably "I will find you, and I will kill you," from Taken. But the Emancipation Proclamation? We're dubious, and so was Neeson, who was once positioned to play Abraham Lincoln in a biopic directed by Steven Spielberg. Of course, Spielberg's cinematic interpretation of the 16th President did happen in 2012, starring Daniel Day-Lewisin another one of his many Oscar-winning transformations. For roughly a decade, Neeson had prepared to take on the cumbersome task of playing Lincoln under Spielberg's direction in what would've been their Schindler's List reunion. Suddenly, one day, Neeson voluntarily squashed his dreams of playing Honest Abe due to reservations about his abilities and changes in the film's structure. A scenario where Lincoln was made without Day-Lewis is unimaginable, but there was a time when Neeson playing the president didn't register as parody.