With ‘Taken’ in cinemas this Friday, Movies.ie presents ten things you never knew about Liam Neeson.
When divorced former CIA agent Bryan (Liam Neeson) reluctantly allows his 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) to travel from Los Angeles to Europe with her girlfriend Amanda (Katie Cassidy), his worst fears are soon realized when the two young women are taken by an underworld gang which uses travelling females to feed an extensive sex slave trafficking trade. Bryan, who has retired to be closer to Kim and spend more time with her, is catapulted back into his old profession, and has to use every trick in and out of the book to try and track down the gang and save his daughter before she disappears forever in the belly of the trafficking beast.
With non-stop action from the start,‘Taken’ sees Irish actor Liam Neeson in devastating form as the retired security agent desperate to find his abducted daughter.
In honour of the film’s release (in Irish cinemas from Friday) Movies.ie present ten things you never knew about Liam Neeson:
(1) He was a boxer as a teenager in Northern Ireland. He went on to win the Irish Youth Championship.
(2) Neeson graduated from the Gaiety School of Drama in Dublin.
(3) He considered for the role of James Bond in GoldenEye.
(4) He has dated actresses including Helen Mirren, Julia Roberts, Brooke Shields, Barbra Streisand and singer Sinéad O’Connor.
(5) He reportedly wanted to be in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) so badly, he didn’t even bother reading the script.
(6) Though he was eager to be a part of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace he reportedly hated working on the film, once shooting started, remarking that he “felt like a puppet”.
(7) In 2000 he fractured his right pelvis and chipped his left pelvis after hitting a deer while riding his 1989 motorcycle in Connecticut. He was thrown off the bike just before it smashed into a nearby tree. A passing motorist found him crawling along the roadside.
(8) He was considered for the role of Van Helsing in Dracula (1992) (and reportedly he very much wanted the role), however, he was turned down when Anthony Hopkins showed an interest in the role and ultimately got it.
(9) He recalled his most embarrassing moment in acting as, relatively early in his career, he auditioned for the role of Fezzik, the giant, in The Princess Bride. Director Rob Reiner had a look of disgust on his face when he realized that Neeson was “only” six-feet-four and André the Giant ended up getting the role.
(10) It was his role in Shining Through as a high Nazi party official that got him noticed by Steven Spielberg, and that eventually led to him being cast as Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List
See Liam Neeson. in ‘Takenr’ – in cinemas from Friday, September 26th. Click play to watch the trailer below: