The legendary Hollywood star Liam Neeson of Taken fame has announced that he will be retiring next year.
However, before you blow your top: he won’t stop making movies altogether. Instead, Neeson is only retiring from making action films.
Neeson Retiring From Acting Movies
“Maybe the end of next year. I think that’s it,” Neeson told People Magazine when asked when he’ll stop his action movie career.
“I’m 72 — it has to stop at some stage,” he continued. “You can’t fool audiences. I don’t want Mark to be fighting my fight scenes for me.” (While Neeson performs his own fight scenes, he leaves his more intricate stunt work to his longtime collaborator Mark Vanselow.)
Can you blame the guy for not wanting someone else to steal his scenes?
Unusual for a Hollywood star, Neeson found success in action movies later in life, especially with the 2009 revenge drama Taken. In this movie, he plays a former government agent who must rescue his kidnapped daughter.
The film became a huge hit thanks to the excellent fight scenes and relentless action.
“It just seemed to have touched something in the psychic nerve of moviegoing audiences,” Neeson said of the film.
Related: Joy Behar Bizarrely Wants Her ‘Ashes Sprinkled Over Liam Neeson’ After She Dies
Neeson’s Jury Duty Story
Neeson recently had jury duty in New York City. There, he sat reading a Patricia Cornwell mystery on his Kindle while waiting to be released by the clerk.
“He’s calling, I don’t know, 55, 60 of us. He gets to me, but all I’m hearing is, ‘I have a particular set of skills. Skills that would make me…’ And I thought, ‘Oh […] no,’” Neeson recalled with a smile. This is a reference to his iconic monologue from Taken.
“It was actually really sweet and flattering,” he added. “As I was leaving, people started to applaud.”
Neeson has now made over a dozen action movies. His latest is called Absolution, which is about a low-level criminal and boxer afflicted with CTE. The character must exact revenge on some very bad men. The movie was directed by Hans Petter Moland, who also directed Neeson in 2019’s Cold Pursuit.
“When he’s immersed in the character he is, you see the hurt, you see the pain,” said Moland. “He becomes that man.”
Absolution hits theaters on November 1. Check out a trailer for the movie below.
Related: Liam Neeson Admits He Felt ‘Uncomfortable’ With Joy Behar On ‘The View’
Neeson’s Romantic Life
When asked if he is dating anyone at the moment, Neeson replied, “No, in a word. I’m past all that.”
Neeson’s beloved wife Natasha Richardson, an actress best known for starring in The Parent Trap, died in a skiing accident in 2009. He had been married to her for 15 years, and they had two sons together.
“It was a horrible thing to happen,” Neeson said of her death. He added that he coped with her loss by pouring himself into his acting roles because of his “Irish working-class need to just take any job that was going.”
Neeson’s main concern after Richardson’s death was on their sons and “making sure they were OK.” Luckily, he had the support of Richardson’s mother and sister, the actresses Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson.
“Everybody just pulled together. Vanessa and Joely were extraordinary,” he recounted. “We were fortunate in lots of ways.”
Neeson is one of the most talented actors working today. While we will miss his acting movies, he certainly deserves to have the chance to take more relaxed roles as he gets further into his 70s!
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