Liam Neeson
Interview By: Stephen Snart
StephenSnart@TheCinemaSource.com
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Soft-spoken and methodical in his speech, Liam Neeson exhibits a sense of austerity without intense intimidation. It's this quality that's helped him to recently create much-loved figures of paternity and mentorship in films as diverse as Kingdom of Heaven, Love Actually and Star Wars: Episode 1 ' The Phantom Menace. In his latest film, the both picturesque and piercingly brutal western Seraphim Falls, Neeson reinterprets these qualities and turns himself into a vengeance-minded wraith of a man.
The character he plays, Carver, is hot on the pursuit of his co-star Pierce Brosnan's character, Gideon throughout the length of the film. As he viciously tracks down his prey, he and his posse navigate through the extreme conditions of both snow-covered mountains and blistering desert. None of which hinder his determination to exact vengeance. 'I kind of likened him, to a certain extent, to Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. He's totally governed by this idea of revenge where he's practically lost his humanity. You don't even see him eating,' Neeson says of Carver, although he's quick to make the distinction between the character and himself as an actor while on set. 'You have to fuel yourself up. I'm very, very respectful of what happens to the human body when you're working hard. You have to fuel. So, I didn't drop weight or anything like that. You have to have your stamina when shooting those types of movies. If you get sick' production stops down and you're responsible.'
Neeson was also careful not to let his character's disposition toward Brosnan's character inform their rapport as fellow actors. 'We were good buddies. We discussed all that stuff, but no, we're not method actors to that extent,' he says with a wry smile.
In addition to the strong friendship he formed with Brosnan, he made another powerful emotional connection during the production - with his horse, Spider. 'I missed my horse so much while I was away,' he says with a fond laugh. 'I loved Spider. He just made me look good. I'm just a competent rider, I'm not a horseman. But Spider' I always brought a granola bar to [him] first thing in the morning and said [whispers] 'Spider, make me look good.''
The chance to play a cowboy on film fulfilled a long relationship Neeson has had with westerns. 'Like Pierce, I was kind of steeped in that western mythology growing up in Ireland. I was a kind of country boy, a lot of times around horses. It was just kind of in my blood. A lot of my ancestors from Ireland' millions left from Ireland in the middle of the nineteenth century and came to these shores and helped build canals and railroads, shoot buffalo, kill Indians and die in the Civil War.'
Born and raised in Northern Ireland, the idea of civil unrest was very familiar to Neeson. 'I've ruminated a lot and meditated a lot on revenge because I'm from the north of Ireland. I'm a child of the 60s and 70s and was surrounded by violence for most of my young adult life. I wasn't involved in it thanks be to God but I knew men who were and the idea of revenge or trying to right a wrong that was done four hundred years ago just seemed anathema to me. Yet I respected these people's passion for what they were commited to, and some of them still are,' Neeson lets out a sigh 'The idea of dying for your country' the hardest thing to do and the bravest thing to do is to live for your country which is what I wanted to do. I'm very proud to be Irish. I certainly wasn't going to pick up a gun and kill another Irishman.' He then turns to contemporary politics, 'We live in an era when revenge is just the flavor. Nobody ever talks of forgiveness.' With this, he returns to the themes of Seraphim Falls, 'That idea of revenge, it eats your soul ultimately. It eats your humanity' but there is an act of forgiveness in this film that I find extraordinary and attracted me to the script.'
In addition to being a revered film actor, Neeson is also a tremendous stage presence and an inveterate fan of theater. When asked about his next return to the stage, he's hesitant to commit. 'I've been asked to do Oleana, I don't know if you know, David Mamet's play in the fall which I'm thinking about. I'm not sure. I just know I need the theater drug, I need to get back soon. Of course my wife [actress Natasha Richardson] wants to get back too so there's a problem. When you do stage now, when you're married and have kids, the planets have to be aligned in a special way.' With filming on Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (where Neeson is set to play the titular President of the United States) rumored to start next year, fans of Neeson's will have to hope the planets can align rather quickly.
