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Roundtable Interview With Liam Neeson On Taken 2

Liam Neeson is an actor who needs no introduction, playing anything from a God, to a Jedi, to Batman's teacher. Currently, you can catch him reprising the role of loving father/military genius Bryan Mills for Olivier Megaton's Taken 2.

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We Got This Covered: Just out of curiosity, when you were back doing interviews for The Grey, and people would ask what this movie was about, you would say you couldn’t talk about it. Could you comment on how secretive this screenplay was for you and compare it to other movies you’ve done?

Liam Neeson: It’s just to satisfy the fans really. You know yourselves there’s so much publicity with movies, with trailers, you think “Well I’ve seen the whole movie now.”

I mean, Chris Nolan takes it to another extreme. I didn’t know I was in the movie [The Dark Knight Rises].  I went and shot a scene for two hours with Christian Bale. There was a set, Christian was tied up, and I said “Chris, what am I doing?” [As Nolan:] “Umm…well, just walk forward, and say the lines, walk back, and that’ll be it really.” I said “What the f*ck, tell me the story!” [As Nolan:] “Umm, I’d prefer not to, really.” Ok, don’t mind me, I’m just an actor.

So, they take it to another extreme.

We Got This Covered: So this wasn’t so bad?

Liam Neeson: This wasn’t so bad, no decoy scripts.

We Got This Covered: You’ve fought Batman, aliens, you name it.  Which was the most fun?

Liam Neeson: The lightsaber stuff in Star Wars was fun, but it was sort of classic sword fighting. I love the stuff with Christian in Batman Begins, because we’re actually on this glacier, this real glacier in Iceland, and we had these glacier wranglers believe it or not, so as we’re out fighting with a reduced crew, the glacier wranglers would say “OK, everybody off.” We’d all stand to the side of this blue beautiful glacier and this ice, you’d hear this sound of just nature moving, as this thing moved maybe a quarter of an inch, the ice would screech, then it would all stop and the guy would say “OK, you can go on again!”

We Got This Covered: Can you talk about the car stunts?

Liam Neeson: I get dizzy on a thick carpet for starters.  That’s my way of introducing the fact that I hate roller coaster rides.  My kids have begged me over the years, to ride roller coaster rides. “Dad, please come with me on this!” Of course, as a father you think “Of course I will son.” No, I love you to death, but there’s no way I’m getting on that f*cking ride. I didn’t curse, but…

So, to answer your question, they have these things called “top riders” I think, where by you have these amazing French drivers who are sitting on the roof of the car with a steering mechanism who are actually driving the car. So you’re in, or in this case Maggie was driving, and there’s no CGI, you’re barreling up these streets, but it’s this amazing stunt guy, driver, on the roof of the car, actually doing all the work, but it’s terrifying.

We Got This Covered: What’s next for you?

Liam Neeson: I’m going to do a Paul Haggis film [Third-Person] next month, just for a week, and then I start a Joel Silver thriller [Non-Stop] up until Christmas, and then after Christmas I go back to the Paul Haggis film for a final two weeks.

We Got This Covered: Can you tell us what you’re favorite movie is and why?

Liam Neeson: My favorite movie?  There’s two actually.  One I was talking about with a friend last night called Once Upon A Time In America, which I like very much, and Ben Hur.

We Got This Covered: Those are both epics, what do you like about those films?

Liam Neeson: I just remember the gut feeling of watching them on the big cinemascope screen, I guess it was. Ben Hur and that chariot race still hold up so unbelievably exciting.

We Got This Covered: What props have you taken home from set along the years?

Liam Neeson: There’s quite a few swords and stuff, from Ridley’s film, they gave me a beautiful sword. Gangs of New York, I’ve got that sword. Rob Roy, I’ve got a few of those.

We Got This Covered: So it’s all about the swords?

Liam Neeson: Yeah, bits of armor, stuff like that. Oh I have a lightsaber too, I forgot about that. The one I actually used. George “allowed” me to have it.

We Got This Covered: So what about a Taken 3?

Liam Neeson: I think this is the end. I mean, how many times can she be taken? It’s bad parenthood, really.

That concludes our interview but we’d like to thank Liam very much for talking with us. Be sure to check out Taken 2, in theaters this Friday.