“Not my cup of tea”: the genre Liam Neeson wants nothing to do with
Liam Neeson has done his fair share of genre movies over the years. Though younger generations will probably always remember him as an action star, he started out in the theatre before branching out into movies that spanned genres, budgets, and target audiences.
His early roles were in prestigious films such as John Boorman’s Excalibur and Roland Joffé’s The Mission. When he hit Hollywood, however, he cast a wide net, appearing in everything from the final Dirty Harry instalment, The Dead Pool – where he was knocked down a peg by Clint Eastwood – to John Madden’s romantic period drama Ethan Frome. Neeson’s three most well-known films are an encapsulation of how versatile he’s been as an actor – Steven Spielberg’s peak-prestige drama Schindler’s List, the Star Wars prequels, and the low-budget kidnapping thriller Taken, which spawned a franchise.
Despite this range, however, Neeson has said that there is one genre he just doesn’t want anything to do with. Speaking to Collider last month, the actor revealed that he’s not keen on appearing in a superhero movie anytime soon. “They’re not my personal cup of tea,” he said, hastily acknowledging the extraordinary effort that goes into making them and the remarkable achievements that Hollywood has made in the area.
“I do prefer a more intimate type of film,” he concluded.
Neeson has, in fact, appeared in a superhero film already. In Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, he played Ra’s al Ghul, Bruce Wayne’s mentor in martial arts and philosophy, who turns out to be the primary baddie trying to vaporise Gotham’s water supply (as one does). Neeson is sufficiently menacing and apologetic in the role, carrying an unseen weight on his shoulders that makes him an especially classy villain.
For the actor, Nolan’s Batman didn’t really count as a superhero movie. In fact, he listed Batman Begins and Taken as more intimate than their genres suggest. Perhaps it would have been more accurate for him to say that he isn’t interested in doing the kind of superhero movies that Hollywood is now doing almost exclusively – the kind of movies that are led by the studios and their focus groups rather than by a filmmaker with a particular vision of how a comic book can be adapted for a modern audience.
Some might argue that Neeson has already sold out by becoming a creature of the action genre, but even in his most scrappy, cliché-laden vehicles, there is always a focus on the main character. Those characters may be riddled with stereotypes – regret, grief, guilt, a dead female family member, etc. – but they always allow him to show that quiet mournfulness and stoicism that has made him a movie star at such an advanced age. Tom Cruise might be getting all the applause for performing stunts into his early sixties, but Neeson is out there in his seventies punching wolves and making it all emotionally resonant.
Compliments aside, it remains to be seen how he’ll keep that commitment to intimacy with his upcoming film, a reboot of the Naked Gun police spoof franchise.
