Aussie screen legend Jack Thompson reveals the Hollywood role he narrowly missed out on

He’s had an undoubtedly stellar acting career, but Jack Thompson has revealed there was one role which could have changed his whole life.

Appearing on Anh’s Brush With Fame on Tuesday, the 80-year-old Aussie screen legend revealed he narrowly missed out on the lead in Schindler’s List.

The Steven Spielberg-directed film was released in 1994 and won seven Oscars, with Liam Neeson ultimately cast in the eponymous role.

The 68-year-old Irish actor even picked up a Best Actor Oscar nomination, but Jack said the role was ‘almost’ his.  

‘I’d done camera tests, shot a couple of scenes, and then did a whole afternoon with Spielberg,’ he told host Anh Do.

‘At the end of it [Steven Spielberg] said, “Well, there’s not much doubt.”‘

Jack said Steven then told him that he had to catch a flight to New York, but they’d sign the contracts when he returned on the Monday.

But while he was in New York, the legendary director met up with Liam and had a change of heart.

Jack said while the news was ‘a bit devastating’, he was ultimately ‘OK’ with it, understanding the nature of the business.

But he confessed the full impact of what had occurred only struck him ‘months and months and months later’.  

‘I’m on my farm, I’ve gone right up to the back hill, and I get off the horse… and [I’m thinking about] what had just happened with Schindler’s List and I just [yelled]: “F***”,’ he recounted.

Describing Liam’s performance in the World War II biopic as ‘wonderful’, Jack previously revealed he’d even spent months researching Oskar Schindler in anticipation of undertaking the role.