It doesn’t seem five minutes since Liam Neeson broke our hearts with some old tosh about never appearing in action movies again.
Deep down we knew he’d be back, and it turns out we were absolutely right.
It’s all too clear Liam Neeson’s natural habitat is the set of an action film, and he probably spends his weekend downtime leaping between buildings in slow motion with a surly yet determined look etched across his face.
Never borrow something from this man and forget to return it. He will hunt you down. #LiamNeeson #MarkFelt pic.twitter.com/2xhUr8tkQ3
— Jimmy Kimmel Live (@JimmyKimmelLive) September 28, 2017
Speaking at the Toronto Film Festival, the Taken actor spoke about the disbelief audiences might begin to feel at the sight of a pensioner action hero charging around and taking down the bad guys:
I’m sixty-f****ng-five. Audiences are eventually going to go: ‘Come on,’
Not us, Liam, not us…
Speaking with Variety at the premiere of his new movie Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down The White House, Liam laughed off rumours of him giving up his badass ways:
It’s not true, look at me! You’re talking in the past tense. I’m going to be doing action movies until they bury me in the ground. I’m unretired.
At the age of 65, Liam is well within his rights to hand over exploding cars and machine guns in favour of starring in gentile Sunday night period dramas, however we just can’t quite see it to be honest.
Check out Liam up to his old tricks in his latest spy thriller Mark Felt, which follows the true story of the FBI agent turned Watergate whistleblower:
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It was the actions of real life Mark Felt, known by the alias ‘Deep Throat’, which lead to the resignation of President Nixon. With parallels often being drawn between the Nixon and Trump eras, the timing of the film’s release is particularly apt.
History buff Liam made sure to read up on the time period in question – early 1970s – while preparing to portray mysterious Mark, whose true identity was not known until just three years before his death at the age of 95-years-old:
This was an incredibly important time in Western history when a president and his team committed criminal acts and the freedom of the press was proven to work. Democracy was proven to work, and we have to keep reminding ourselves of that.
Apparently Liam is the perfect fit to play the infamous agent. According to the writer of A G-Man’s Life: The FBI, Being ‘Deep Throat,’ and the Struggle for Honor in Washington, his portrayal is ‘eerily similar’.
With a weighty back catalogue of serious, historically driven cinema behind him, including Schindler’s List and Lincoln, Liam is more than capable of pulling off this ambitious role.
Saw preview last night for Mark Felt, film about Watergate scandal's "Deep Throat". Curious when this project began bc its certainly timely…
— Jory Rand (@ABC7Jory) September 27, 2017
Liam may now be old enough to qualify for a bus pass, but nobody in Hollywood, young or old, can compare with his particular set of acting skills.
Here’s to many more cinematic adventures for the Northern Irish actor. A 100-year-old Bryan Mills? Why the hell not.
There’s clearly life in the old dog yet!
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.