TODAY – Pictured: Liam Neeson on Wednesday February 15, 2023 – (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
Liam Neeson didn’t need emblematic characters like James Bond to leave a mark on cinema history, although they made him an offer and he turned it down when his future wife, Natasha Richardson, threatened him with an ultimatum. She was clear and direct: if so, she would not marry him. And the Irishman, who was at the peak of his career thanks to Schindler’s list, declined to be Timothy Dalton’s replacement out of love (Pierce Brosnan took his place), in other words, his future with her was more important than any saga character.
Instead, he left his mark alone and without the burden of an outside legacy throughout a 45-year film career. Whether as a romantic hero, epic character, Oscar-winning star, deadly weapon of an action film veteran or Star Wars figurehead, there is no generation that does not know his name. At the age of 70, he continues to work and makes the cinema his profession, but also his refuge at the worst moment of his life.. Due to the 100 films that make up his filmography, there is one that has served him well throughout his deepest life.
To Liam Neeson, his wife”It was his be-all and end-all.” They met in 1993 while they both starred in the Broadway adaptation of Anna Christie, and felt an “explosive chemistry” that Neeson had never felt with a partner, as he explained to 60 Minutes in 2014. And although the daughter of fellow actress Vanessa Redgrave and director Tony Richardson, who was married to producer Robert Fox, they couldn’t deny what they experienced on stage every night.
They later met on the set of Schindler’s List when she traveled to see him and have never looked back since. They bought a home, married locally in 1994 and welcomed their two children thereafter.
(FILES): This October 17, 2008 file photo shows actor Liam Neeson with his actress wife Natasha Richardson during the UK premiere of his latest film ‘The Other Man’ in London’s Leicester Square as part of the London Film Festival. Actress Natasha Richardson has died, a spokesman said on March 18, 2009, two days after the daughter of British theater icon Vanessa Redgrave suffered what appeared to be brain damage in what was initially dismissed as a minor skiing accident. AFP PHOTO / Files / Max Nash (Photo credit should read MAX NASH/AFP/Getty Images)
It was with her that he learned “to love unconditionally,” as he explained on his Facebook account in 2016 while reminiscing about Natasha Richardson seven years after her death (via the Irish Mirror). Because this passionate love had to say goodbye abruptly and tragically when the actress suffered a skiing accident on March 18, 2009. He was attending a class in Quebec, Canada when he fell down a cliff. He got up and joked about what happened, but the instructor advised him to return to the hotel. She even called her husband to tell him about her fall. But then she felt the aftermath of the coup and when she was taken to the hospital, she was diagnosed as brain dead. Neeson couldn’t see her awake anymore.. She was shooting the film Chloe in Toronto and it quickly went over to her. But there was no turning back and together with her family she had to make the difficult decision to separate her from the machines that kept her alive.
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The tragedy was a hard blow for Liam Neeson. He took refuge in his family and work and made practically film after film, but the pain shook him with waves of memories and the reality that tormented him daily. “[El dolor] It hits you in the middle of the night, at least it hits me in the middle of the night. So I go for a walk. I feel pretty happy and it’s like all of a sudden, boom!” he told Esquire in 2011. He even added that every time he heard the door of his house open, he got “a deep sense of the instability” and thought washing machine.
And in this moment of professional rush, he distracts himself with The Next Three Days, Clash of the Titans, A-Team – The Magnificent or Without Identity, came the movie that helped him channel the pain he was feeling. A film that was well received by critics and at the box office, that hardly anyone talks about, but which was important for the actor at this time in his life. I’m talking about To Survive One Day (The Grey), A dramatic thriller in which he played a plane crash survivor who tries to keep his companions alive by confronting hungry wolves in the middle of the wildest snow.
“It was a special film to make, and personally, too,” he recently told Indiewire. “It was shortly after my wife died.”
LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 11: Actor Liam Neeson arrives at the premiere of Open Road Films’ ‘The Grey’ on January 11, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
“I had to do this film and when Joe Carnahan sent me the script I was like, ‘I have to do this. I need to do this to channel my sorrow, to channel something about our bloody reason for being on this planet. ‘” he said.
And it so happens that Liam Neeson begins the story in the film as a desperate man who has lost his purpose in life. He devotes himself to eliminating the wolves that are threatening the oil workers, but after hearing the last gasp of a wolf after shooting at it, he hits rock bottom and contemplates suicide. His wife suffers from a terminal illness and his life has fallen into a dark hole, even while writing a suicide note. But the accident, tragedy and death that surround him, as well as the odds of surviving, lead him to confront the leader of the wolf pack, face the possible end of his life and surrender to a final fight without resignation.
to survive a day is one of the many examples of the professional renaissance of Liam Neeson as a veteran action star, a facet of his career he still – at the age of 70 – maxes out whenever he can. Yet despite its widespread acceptance and the $81 million it grossed at the global box office (when it cost $25 million), it’s barely on the media radar when it comes to action films. The actor himself agrees in the above interview that not enough is being said about her, even though she deserves it. And given the healing power she had in the worst moment of her life, I suspect many will look at her differently.
It’s not about “another” Liam Neeson action film, but the tragedy his character is going through reflected the personal pain the actor was still processing. I recently rewatched it after hearing his words and discovered another movie. I could see her with different eyes. Friendlier eyes with the character and their suffering, but also with the actor through a more personal connection, recognizing reality in the midst of fiction. They can be found on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix in Latin American countries, while in the US they are available in buy or rent format.
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