There are actors who talk about legacy, and then there are actors who just keep working — steadily, without much fuss. At 73, Liam Neeson falls firmly into the latter camp. His IMDb page alone is exhausting in the best way. Action thrillers. Historical dramas. Romantic comedies that refuse to age.
His latest film, Cold Storage, in theaters now, is part horror homage, part dark comedy — what one of his costars described as “the weirdest date-night movie ever.” It’s a fitting description for a film that blends blood and gore with humor, tension with absurdity. When Neeson signed on to play a grizzled bioterror operative, a first in his decades-long career, he says it’s because the script passed what he calls his “cup of tea test.”
Over the course of our conversation, Neeson moved easily between gratitude, sentimentality, self-deprecation and sharp Irish humor. So instead of walking through a résumé that spans decades, we asked him to reflect on a few things that have stuck with him — on set, off set and everywhere in between.
One sentimental thing
Though they don’t share scenes in Cold Storage, Neeson has one very personal tie to the film: Vanessa Redgrave.
Redgrave is the mother of his late wife, Natasha Richardson, and she and Neeson have remained close since Richardson died in 2009. Although they didn’t cross paths on set, Neeson said he would call the director, British filmmaker Jonny Campbell, and check in: “How did my mother-in-law do?”
When a dangerous fungus escapes from a secret lab in Cold Storage, Neeson’s character teams up with two young employees to stop a threat no one can see before it spirals out of control. Redgrave makes a cameo.
Campbell told him a story about her first day — how, despite “acting her age,” she seemed to slip effortlessly back into the vitality that has defined her career. “She’s still got that spark,” Neeson says. “The camera just loves her.”
Neeson only wishes the two had shared the screen. Still, the experience gave him a sense of personal connection to the project in a way few roles can. When he speaks with Redgrave now, he says he’s happy he can refer to Cold Storage simply as “our movie,” a quiet acknowledgment of the history that sits just beneath the professional collaboration.
Neeson and his mother-in-law, acclaimed actress Vanessa Redgrave, in 2014.
(Mike Coppola via Getty Images)
One movie thing
Neeson isn’t scared easily — at least not by monsters.
“I’m not a fan of horror films at all,” he shares. “Blood and gore? No, that was never for me.” As a kid, he loved the old Hammer movies in Britain. Otherwise, scary movies, he says, are not his thing.
What hooked him on Cold Storage wasn’t the fungus or the chaos. It was the script — and the name attached to it.
“I’ve been a huge fan of David Koepp’s for years,” he says, rattling off credits like Mission: Impossible and Jurassic Park. “When I saw David’s name, I thought, ‘Oh my God, good.’”
Then came the cup of tea test.
“I get to page five or six, and if I think, ‘I’ll put the kettle on and have a cup of tea,’ that’s not a good sign,” he explains. “But with this one, it really was a page-turner. I started at the beginning and finished at the end.”
He said he found himself giggling. Sitting on the edge of his seat. Appreciating what he calls “a delicious dollop of humor” running through the horror. For someone who claims not to love the genre, that’s saying something.
One ‘Love Actually’ thing
Neeson doesn’t love watching himself onscreen. “I’m a bit squeamish about it,” he admits. “I start noticing the overacting or things I should have done or shouldn’t have done.”
But there is one exception.
“If Love Actually comes on and you hear Hugh Grant at the beginning [of the film] talking about all the messages of love after Sept. 11 — I defy anybody to flick to another channel,” he says. “Seriously.”
Neeson with Natasha Richardson at the 2003 premiere of Love Actually in New York City.
(Evan Agostini via Getty Images)
One health thing
There’s a certain mythology around being an action star at 73. Neeson is quick to puncture it.
“I don’t train the way people think,” he says. “I do not stay in the gym for two or three hours every day.”
But he does take responsibility seriously.
“If you’re playing a lead or semi-lead in these films, there’s a crew of 50 to 100 people waiting on you,” he says. “That group requires a commitment. And part of that commitment should be keeping yourself reasonably fit.”
That perspective sharpened 25 years ago, after a serious motorcycle accident. “They told my wife that I wasn’t going to survive the night,” he recalls.
“It was only because of the physical wellness that I pulled through,” he says simply. “Health is wealth.”
One forgotten thing
For all the films that defined different chapters of his career, there is one Neeson still returns to when asked which project deserved more recognition: Michael Collins.
Directed by Neil Jordan and costarring Julia Roberts, the 1996 historical drama follows the revolutionary who fought for Irish independence. The film was well received in Ireland, but Neeson notes it took years to even get made, as political tensions in Northern Ireland were still ongoing at the time.
“That’s one I’m particularly proud of,” he says. “It tells an important story about the formation of politics in my country.”
For Neeson, the significance of the film wasn’t measured in awards or box office, but in the story it told and the effort it took to bring it to the screen.
Looking back now, he says he doesn’t dwell on missed opportunities or the roles that might have been. Instead, he keeps coming back to something simpler.
“I just feel so frigging privileged,” he says, “that some stranger — producers, a writer, whatever — will send me a script they want me to take part in. I’m always really deeply touched by that, no matter how poor the script may be or how good it is.”
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