Liam Neeson is just a few years shy of turning 70, but that’s not slowing him down.
The acclaimed “Schindler’s List,” “K-19: The Widowmaker ” and “The Mission” actor was famous for his more dramatic fare, first as a leading man or key supporting figure, then throughout much of the turn of the millennium as a mentor figure in films ranging from “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” to “Batman Begins” and “Kingdom of Heaven”.
The success of “Taken” in 2008 however saw a late career re-direction with Neeson quickly becoming a go to leading man for action-thriller films over much of the past decade or so with efforts like “The Grey,” “Non-Stop,” “Run All Night,” “The Commuter,” “Cold Pursuit,” the “Clash of the Titans” remake, and two “Taken” sequels.
Recently he shot something very different – the romantic drama “Made in Italy”. Does this mean he’s hanging up his gun? Not so fast. Speaking to EW, he says he has no plans to stop running just yet:
“I keep very fit and I love doing that stuff. And look, I just turned 68, it’s crazy, but there’s a couple of fights left in me.”
When “Taken” was in development, Neeson read the script and approached director Luc Besson saying “I’m sure I’m nowhere near your list of actors for this, but I used to be a boxer, I love doing fight scenes, I’ve done quite a few sorcery movies with swords and s–t. Please think of me for this.” He got the job, but Neeson had no idea the film would take off like it did:
“I’ve said this before, and no offense to Robert Kamen, our wonderful writer and my pal, but I thought, ‘Well, this is going to go straight-to-video. A short little European thriller, it might play okay for a couple weeks in France and then it will go straight-to-video.’ But it did well in France and then it went straight to South Korea, and it did very well there.
And then I was getting calls from my nephews in Ireland, saying, ‘[Stoner voice] Um, Uncle Liam, we saw your movie.’ I said, ‘Which one?” They said, ‘Um, Taken.’ I said, ‘What do you mean? You couldn’t have seen it.’ They said, ‘Well, we downloaded it from South Korea.’ I said, ‘You can’t do that! What are you talking about?!’ So I thought, ‘My nephews are breaking the law,’ which really p—ed me off, and also I thought, ‘Well, that’s it. If you can download it, it’s gone into the ether.’
But Fox took it and they very cleverly did a good trailer and put it during various sporting events around the country and they made it a real success. I remember the first weekend it came in at No. 3, and then it came up to No. 2 and then No. 1, and then it went down to No. 4, and it came up to No. 3 again. It just had this extraordinary cycle. That’s where it started, and then there were plans to do a second one and a third one, of course. So it was luck, and you need some luck in this business.”
The original “Taken” ultimately grossed over $220 million on a modest $25 million budget and remains one of Neeson’s greatest success stories. The franchise on its own ultimately closed out with $929 million worldwide over three films.
