Liam Neeson Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

GQMagazine

Liam Neeson joins GQ as he revisits some of the most iconic characters from his career so far: his role as Bryan Mills in the action-thriller Taken to his portrayal of Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace.

Transcript

00:00I thought my death was a bit nabby-pappy.

00:02I'm supposed to be a master Jedi, you know.

00:04My character fell for that.

00:06Oh, I'm going for your face.

00:07No, I'm not. I'm going for your stomach.

00:09Oh, you got me.

00:10Oh, please.

00:12Hardly a master Jedi.

00:18Schindler's List.

00:20I'll go along with it.

00:23It's just irritating. I can't work it out.

00:25Look, all you have to do is tell me what it's worth to you.

00:30What's a person worth to you?

00:31No, no, no, no.

00:32What's one worth to you?

00:35I had read the script sent to me by my agent.

00:39I thought it was beautiful.

00:43Absolutely beautiful script of an extraordinary story.

00:48My first conversation with Stephen,

00:50I had met him before, years before,

00:54but Stephen wanted me to do a little screen test with him.

00:57He was the camera operator.

01:00I had prepared a couple of things from the script.

01:05The whole thing might have lasted maybe 40 minutes, 45 minutes.

01:10And I remember leaving Amblin Studios, where he had an office,

01:14thinking, well, if I don't get this part, it doesn't matter.

01:18I've just spent three-quarters of an hour

01:21with one of the great directors in the world.

01:24And he was operating the camera, too, you know?

01:27And I was doing a play in New York.

01:33I was focused on that and, you know, kind of forgot about this little screen test I'd done.

01:40Yeah, Stephen offered me the part, and I was kind of shocked.

01:44And it was to start photography after I wrapped the play.

01:51So I remember wrapping the play, and I think it was early March.

01:5424 hours later, 36 hours, I was out in Poland, in Krakow,

02:02which is where we were going to shoot the film, you know?

02:04I had read the book, Schindler's Ark, by Thomas Kennelly.

02:11I had read quite a lot over the years, stuff on the Holocaust and the Second World War.

02:17And the more I read the script, the more profound

02:21I thought that era was on this murder of over six million people.

02:32It was profound. I can't think of another word.

02:36And this was only 85 years ago, you know, 90 years ago.

02:41So it was quite daunting, you know, to be there in the streets where Schindler was, you know,

02:50dressed up, obviously, in period costume, you know,

02:53doing these scenes with Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley and working with Stephen.

02:56And it was never, I never once thought, oh, I'm starring in a film.

03:04It was just, I'm part of telling the most horrendous story that's happened.

03:12Humanity. All of us.

03:16Particularly the Jewish people.

03:18And that still has an effect on me, you know.

03:20Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace.

03:26Moisture farms, for the most part.

03:30Some indigenous tribes and scavengers.

03:34A few spaceports like this one are havens for those that don't wish to be found.

03:38Like us.

03:39And the first time you and McGregor and I had to draw our lightsabers, you know.

03:44I remember we both made the sound at the exact same time.

03:50George said, boys, you don't have to do that.

03:52We can add that stuff.

03:54Oh, okay, sorry.

03:57George doesn't like directing.

03:59Period.

03:59He told me that.

04:01He finishes the scene, he'd say, Natalie, a little bit faster.

04:06Liam, a little bit faster there.

04:09Editing, sweet.

04:10Afterwards, yeah, that's when he starts enjoying the process.

04:14But actually directing actors and stuff.

04:16He told me he doesn't like it at all.

04:19So was it hard to train for after those scenes?

04:21No, it wasn't hard, hard.

04:24But we had aluminum swords.

04:27So we trained with those.

04:28On the day, we had shortened aluminum with green tape on them.

04:34Mine was green tape.

04:35And then the special effects guys would add the rest of the lightsaber.

04:39I had done a few of those types of fights.

04:42You know, sword, cowboys in armor, I call them.

04:46But it was good.

04:47Yeah, it was good working with Ewan.

04:49I thought my death was a bit nappy-pappy.

04:51I'm supposed to be a master Jedi, you know.

05:01My character fell for that.

05:03Oh, I'm going for your face.

05:04No, I'm not.

05:04I'm going for your stomach.

05:05Oh, you got me.

05:07It's like, oh, please.

05:08Hardly a master Jedi.

05:11But still, it was great.

05:13And all the cameras, I remember, all had wires coming out of them going to guys on laptop computers and stuff.

05:19It was very strange.

05:20And I remember I had a scene with the kid that was going to be Darth Vader, lovely reactor, and this flying.

05:33Oh, don't like that.

05:35Which I'd never seen before.

05:37So I'm getting my makeup on that morning.

05:39Morag was my makeup lady, I remember.

05:43I said, Morag, this is quite a big scene.

05:45I have quite a bit of dialogue with this thing.

05:47And she said, Liam, you could be a monkey smoking a pipe.

05:53No one's going to be looking at you.

05:54They're all going to be looking at this thing, which was kind of true, you know.

05:59You actually returned to the role for the Disney series.

06:03What drew you back to the character?

06:04Oh, it was just one little scene.

06:07Obi-Wan's coming in on a camel and sort of said, Master, I've been looking for you everywhere or something like that.

06:14And I say, I've always been here.

06:15I kind of liked that.

06:16It was just one line.

06:18It was nice to recreate that.

06:21Be with you after, I don't know, 18, 20 years, you know.

06:24It was sweet.

06:25Yeah.

06:26There's so many branches of Star Wars now.

06:28I just, I think it's over.

06:33Michael Collins.

06:35The alternative to this treaty is a war which nobody in this gathering can even contemplate.

06:42If the price of freedom, the price of peace is the blackening of my name, I will gladly pay it.

06:51Well, I've known Neil for many, many years.

06:53We had done a couple of films before Michael Collins.

06:57And then Neil had a success with a film with Interview with a Vampire.

07:03Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and it made some money.

07:06And I think it was David Geffen, the producer, who asked Neil what he wanted to do next.

07:12And Neil said, I'd love to do this.

07:15Tell the story of Michael Collins.

07:17So David was responsible for getting Warner Brothers to invest in it.

07:21The movie took about 12, 13 years to come together because there was still a war going on in the north of Ireland.

07:28And Michael Collins was, and still is, a highly controversial figure in Irish politics, British politics.

07:37He died in 1922 after an ambush.

07:42He was highly controversial, not least because he's regarded as the founding father of modern-day terrorism.

07:52And that he invented a cell of three people, a cell of two people, a different cell of four people, each cell not knowing what the other's up to.

08:03Because they were very, very concerned about informers in those days.

08:09So Collins kind of invented that, you know.

08:13Taken.

08:13If you're looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money.

08:20But what I do have are a very particular set of skills.

08:25Skills I've acquired over a very long career.

08:28Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.

08:31What moment did you realize Taken was going to be this cultural phenomenon?

08:35Well, I didn't.

08:36I mean, I've said it before, but when I did it, I thought this is going straight to video, this little story.

08:42Which was fine.

08:43It gave me a chance to be in Paris for six, seven weeks.

08:48Doing lots of fight stuff.

08:51We shot that first one 18 years ago, I think it was.

08:54But no, I didn't imagine it would be as successful as it was.

08:59Far from it.

09:00And it was a good, tight script, don't get me wrong.

09:02The writing was wonderful, but it was a really taut little script, you know.

09:06But there's no but.

09:08I just was surprised.

09:09Darkman.

09:12Do you consider Darkman an underrated film in your body at work?

09:40Darkman, I think, was of its time, you know.

09:46And we shoot it in 1990, I think it was.

09:49Some people have told me it's the start of all these superhero movies.

09:54That, I don't know, but it was an intense time.

09:57And it was long, long hours with makeup and stuff.

10:01But a delight working with Sam Raimi, you know.

10:03Very inspired director, you know.

10:06And that lovely zany quality to the whole film, too, you know.

10:10And I remember because also I was preparing to play this bare knuckle boxer.

10:15Immediately afterwards to shoot Scotland.

10:20The days were long, you know.

10:22But fun.

10:22They were fun.

10:23Batman Begins.

10:28When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural.

10:33Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself.

10:39The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.

10:42I was shooting a Ridley Scott film, Kingdom of Heaven, in Spain at the time.

10:49And Chris came out to see me.

10:52I'd never met him before.

10:53Very, very quiet and tense man.

10:55Talked about this part.

10:57I wasn't sure.

10:59I mean, Batman.

11:00I was like, yeah, here we go, yeah.

11:02Anyway, push came to shove again.

11:04And found myself working with Christian.

11:08Christian Bale.

11:09Studio.

11:10Shepperton, I think it was, in London.

11:12Yeah, I was kind of surprised at its success.

11:18And I liked the film because it was dark.

11:21It wasn't glossy superhero stuff, you know.

11:26It was pretty dark and intense.

11:28I wasn't on it for the whole shoot, you know.

11:30I don't know, two, three weeks or something.

11:32But Christian's a, he's an intense actor.

11:35And he had, he had played a part where he had to get very, very skinny for.

11:41I mean, very skinny.

11:44When I met him when we were rehearsing fight scenes and stuff, he was quite bloated.

11:48He had put on weight after being so incredibly thin, you know.

11:53A really good actor.

11:55Yeah, I had a lovely time with Christian, yeah.

11:59The Naked Gun.

12:02That was awesome.

12:08What drew us in his role?

12:16Look, I was a fan of the original films.

12:18I was.

12:18And I was very flattered and honoured that Seth MacFarlane called me.

12:24I knew Seth a little bit.

12:25Said they were going to reboot this franchise.

12:28And he was interested in me playing Frank Drebin Jr.

12:32I had no illusions about being a comedy actor at all.

12:37It was just, I liked Seth.

12:40Very, very wicked sense of humour.

12:42Very intelligent man.

12:43So I knew they would get together a good script.

12:46And the script only got better and better the more we worked on it, you know.

12:49Working with Pamela was a joy.

12:51And she's become a new pal, I'm proud to say.

12:55And she's terrific in the role.

12:58She's a kind of femme fatale.

13:00But she's got all other colours attached to her too.

13:04A vulnerability and a certain innocence.

13:07And I loved working with her.

13:08Absolutely loved it.

13:10GQ, thank you.

13:13Please go and see Naked Gun in theatres now.

13:17Otherwise, I will come for you.

13:20And I will find you.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended