What I've learnt: Liam Neeson

04 November 2012 - 02:03 By ©Marianne Gray
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ROLE WITH THE PUNCHES: Liam Neeson took up boxing as a child to build self-confidence - and ended up with a broken nose
ROLE WITH THE PUNCHES: Liam Neeson took up boxing as a child to build self-confidence - and ended up with a broken nose
Image: Lifestyle Magazine

The Irish actor on keeping fit, laughing and saying 'I love you' to Muhammad Ali

Liam Neeson has been making movies since 1979. He was born in Protestant Northern Ireland in a Catholic family, with a mother who was a school cook, a father who was a school caretaker and three noisy sisters. With his distinctive broken nose, the tall, rugged Celt has cornered the market in troubled, sensitive, noble types.

Throughout his career, he has returned to the stage and it was his work on stage in New York with English actress Natasha Richardson, in Eugene O'Neill's drama Anna Christie, that led him up the aisle.

They were married for 15 years and had two sons, now teenagers. He was widowed in 2009 when Richardson died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage following a skiing accident in Canada.

The 60-year-old lives outside New York, with his sons. He is an ambassador for Unicef, raising money to fight children's Aids in Africa. His new film is Taken 2, in which he plays a CIA agent with a "very particular set of skills for hunting down bad guys".

Never give up. My first "new" life started when I answered an ad in a newspaper for an actor over six feet to play a role. I told them I was 6 foot and 4 inches and I got the job over the phone.

Being a Gemini, I have massive mood swings and go from sane security to total nail-biting lack of confidence. I find romantic roles can be boring. I prefer to delve into the blackness of the psyche.

Sixty is the new 40. Since making Taken, I have been discovered as an action hero. It wasn't my plan. When we wrapped on Taken 1, I was 55 years old and Hollywood started sending me action scripts.

You have got to keep fit. I still train. I have a lovely little gym at home. I do my own fights on screen but I don't do my own stunts. My wonderful stunt double has done all the hard stuff for the past 12 or 13 years. But I love all the physical stuff. It appeals to the young person in me.

The foundation stone of a film is the script. That's the litmus test. If I'm reading through it, and I'm suddenly at page 78 and haven't stopped for a cup of tea or a glass of water, it's got me.

Never sniff at making films that are all "bells and baubles". They are fun to be part of. On Wrath of the Titans, my friend Ralph Fiennes - who plays my brother Hades - and I spent a lot of the time laughing. There we were, in long wigs and beards and breast plates, me with my thunderbolt and Ralph with his pitchfork. You have to laugh. The rest of the time we are on stage doing the classics or making deeply "meaningful" films.

You must do something to build your self-confidence if you don't have it. My father encouraged me to take up boxing to build my self-confidence. I broke my nose but also won the youth champs three years running. I have a good left jab. Later on, when I trained as a teacher, I was sent out to do teaching practice, teaching 13-year-old girls. They were terrifying and I couldn't control them! So much for my confidence.

I always had this pull towards the movies. I made some shite films, and it was a gamble, a part of growing up, but I think it paid off. I learnt a lot. I was getting the experience I needed.

There's always a place to be humble. Years ago, I met my hero, Muhammad Ali, after he made a film called Freedom Road. My knees shook and I held his hand and said: "I love you." And then he turned and started flirting with my (then) girlfriend, Helen Mirren. How cool.

I don't get obsessed with acting. Because in the past when I have, it really got in the way of the creative process. I've learnt to hang the character on the coat-peg at the end of the day, and when I leave in the morning I pick it up again. And I had to work at that because the other way lies a strange sort of madness.

  • Taken 2 is on circuit.
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