Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson
Liam John Neeson, OBE is an actor from Northern Ireland. In 1976, he joined the Lyric Players' Theatre in Belfast for two years. He then acted in the Arthurian film, Excalibur. Between 1982 and 1987, Neeson starred in five films; most notably alongside Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in The Bountyand Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons in The Mission. He landed a leading role alongside Patrick Swayze in Next of Kin...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth7 June 1952
CityBallymena, Northern Ireland
CountryIreland
I don't think for this generation, but for my generation and my father's generation, men had difficulty in accessing emotion and then being able to talk about it.
I learned my "facts of life" on toilet walls. I'd walk up in school bathrooms and there would be crude drawings and figures engaged in sex. That's how I learned.
Recovering alcoholic guys wake up in the morning, and they have to think of a reason to get up, and then, once they're up, to not have a drink. It's like all these little heroic battles they have that they fight with and against every day of their lives.
The whole awards thing is great. Why? Because the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards, they put a focus on the industry, and that focus translates into people buying tickets to see movies or download films, legitimately download them. And it keeps us all at work. So I'm a big fan of award shows.
Making a film, you do need stamina, whether you're doing fight scenes or not. It's important to keep fit. I'm not talking about having perfect abs and stuff, but you've got to be on top of your game, especially if you're playing the lead. You have to look after yourself.
I was always attracted to the type of cinema hero as an adolescent growing up in Ireland. Robert Mitchum springs to mind. Later on, it was Steve McQueen to a certain extent and Charles Bronson. They're these types of grizzled characters who had one foot on the side of law and order and the other foot in the bad guy's camp.
No man is an island, as they say. No. I've tried it. I've gone on retreats at various times in my life for three or four or five days. I was desperate to get out of there and talk to somebody. But I fly fish a lot, and I can only do that really by myself. I find I'm never lonesome when I'm on a river, far from it, but it's a lonely practice.
Well, I think I've made 44 films and only like four times I've played real characters I'm just drawn to people who have a pioneer spirit, this extraordinary energy and commitment to their cause.
As you know, Hollywood loves to pigeonhole all the actors and actresses, and suddenly I got 're-pigeonholed' as an action actor.
I try to be a hard boiled sometimes. My kids see right through it. I'm acting. It's always, 'When I say you'll be back at 11, that means 11, not 11.15. Do you hear me!?' Then, 'Yeah, Dad.'
Indeed I regard the enduring support which I have received over the years from all sections of the community in Ballymena as being more than sufficient recognition for any success which I may have achieved as an actor.
I had done some flimflam movies, but I didn't understand what being an actor meant anymore.
I'd like to play Ian Paisley, actually. I'd need building up, though he's very frail now.
I offer my performance as prayer for someone I've worked with as an actor or someone who has died. The image that comes into my head as I walk to the stage, I offer that performance up for that person.