Up until the release of Taken, Liam Neeson was best known as a reliable and Academy Award nominated character actor, one who regularly showed up on our screens to fill mentor and/or father figure roles in prestige dramas and big budget blockbuster alike.
Of course, all it took was one box office smash hit, a single leather jacket, and a litany of throat-punching to transform his career, with Neeson having spent the better part of the last 15 years making the gung-ho action thriller his bread and butter.
During that time, he’s racked up an impressive body count even by the standards of the genre, but the elder statesman of ass-kicking nonetheless revealed in an interview with ScreenRant that he felt a little embarrassed when it was brought to his attention.
“I had a driver when I was doing Taken, the first Taken movie 15 years ago I think it was, and we were shooting in LA for the first week, and at the end of the first week, my driver as he dropped me off at the hotel, he said, “Mr. Neeson, can I ask you a question?” I said, “Yeah, sure.” He says, “I’ve started to read the script of Taken, I’ve got to page 40, I think he said. It says you’ve taken the lives of 26 people.” [laughs] I didn’t know how to answer that. I felt quite embarrassed. They said in such a way as if, “Are you sure you’ve read this script? Because you do nasty things to people.”
Based on the trail of destruction he’s left in his wake since, it obviously didn’t bother Neeson too much in the long run, even if he continues to tease that his days as an action hero are drawing to a close.
