Actor Liam Neeson's newest skill set? Making you giggle with The Naked Gun reboot

Straits Times

3 hours ago

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NEW YORK – There is a line from Welsh thespian Anthony Hopkins that Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson likes to share. Any time Neeson asks him how he is doing, Hopkins tells him: 'Great. I haven't been found out yet.'
At 73, Neeson feels like he has not been found out yet either.
Once dubbed the heir apparent to late Scottish movie star Sean Connery's sweeping romantic grandeur, Neeson, with his broad trajectory and catalogue of more than 100 Hollywood films, is arguably as interesting as any actor today.
He can claim awards bait with Schindler's List (1993) and Michael Collins (1996); franchise blockbusters with Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) and Batman Begins (2005); and fan favourites with Love Actually (2003) and The Lego Movie (2014).
And that is before you consider the long list of action film a**-kickers this Oscar- and Tony-nominated star has played, which established his identity for a generation of fans.
That is largely thanks to the surprising success of the Taken franchise (2008 to 2014), built around Neeson as a father with a very particular set of skills, who will find you and kill you if you kidnap his daughter.
It has been a career that has kept him and his viewers guessing what might come next.
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'I'm honestly not trying to change,' he said of all the changes . 'It wasn't deliberate, but there's been a lot of this for me.'
If you have not figured out why you cannot escape his face lately, it is part of his next change: He is starring in The Naked Gun, the reboot of the crime-spoof comedy franchise from the 1980s and 1990s.
Opening in Singapore cinemas on Aug 7, the film will serve as a test for whether Neeson's brand of straight-man intensity can translate to the level of laughs produced by late Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen, his predecessor in the trilogy.
Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr – son of Nielsen's character Frank Drebin – who leads the LAPD Police Squad and saves the world in the 2025 version. It also stars Canadian-American actress Pamela Anderson and American actor Paul Walter Hauser .
Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr in The Naked Gun.
PHOTO: UIP
Neeson's turn in The Naked Gun is arguably his biggest leap back into the mainstream. But in a summer of blockbusters dominated by superheroes and dinosaurs, are audiences ready to laugh with him?
He admits: 'I don't think of myself as funny-funny, but I love laughing and gagging about.'
And can one of Hollywood's most malleable talents resurrect the notion that there can be a successful theatrical comedy?
'Without getting into politics and stuff, we're all living in a culture, a society where we're scared to speak and scared if we don't. That's what I feel. And we need the Dave Chappelles, the Ricky Gervaises, the Robin Williamses to make fun,' Neeson said, referring to the comedians . 'That's why they have gargoyles in cathedrals, to remind us, 'Come on, don't take yourself too seriously.'
'The film is a giggle, and we need that, I think.'
He also knows there is an expiration date on his action career as the guy who will inevitably monologue you before ending you.
' There comes a point where audiences know, and I don't want to insult an audience by me pretending I'm 50 years of age . I don't want to do that ,' Neeson said. 'I have too much respect for audiences.'
It is why he had been thinking about doing some comedy.
Liam Neeson in New York on July 15. The 73-year-old actor stars in the reboot of The Naked Gun as he reboots his career by venturing into slapstick comedy.
PHOTO: GEORDIE WOOD/NYTIMES
There is a particular scene in The Naked Gun involving Neeson, Anderson and a snowman that feels like a horny, wintry acid trip come to life. Nothing more can be said without spoiling it, but Neeson had his doubts about what they were about to do and whether it was too zany.
'I thought, 'This is not going to work', but what do I know?' he said of the scene that got the biggest laughs during a recent preview screening. 'But I still didn't know at the end of each day if I was delivering. Was I trying too much to be funny?'
It was admittedly a wild idea for American producer Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, 1999 to present; the Ted comedies, 2012 and 2015) and American director Akiva Schaffer (The Watch, 2012; Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, 2016) to ask Neeson to lead the revival of a decades-dormant comedy franchise.
Yet, the duo had their reasons after Neeson had done some voicework as himself on Family Guy, made a cameo in Ted 2 and played the villain in A Million Ways To Die In The West (2014) – all helmed by MacFarlane.
His appearance in the Gervais/Stephen Merchant miniseries Life's Too Short (2011 to 2013), in particular, planted the seed for how his intensity could be hilarious with the right writing.
Neeson remembers British comedian Gervais cracking up during takes, but he was still sceptical . 'It didn't make me think, 'I'm a comedian',' he said.
He loved Nielsen's straight-man performance in Airplane! (1980) and the previous Naked Gun film, but says he stayed away from them entirely in preparing to leap into comedy.
Liam Neeson at The Naked Gun premiere in New York City on July 28.
PHOTO: AFP
To this day, Neeson still does not like to watch himself. He saw a cut of the film a few weeks ago and enjoyed some of the scenes, even if he still does not know how they will play in front of an audience.
Asked what he thinks of his own performance, he is harsher on himself, contorting his face into a half-grimace. 'I thought I was okay, seriously,' he said.
Then, in that voice and with that deadpan look, he turns his head and asks a question of his own. 'Did you get a couple of giggles?'
And again, Neeson made me laugh. NYTIMES