Liam Neeson’s favourite directors to work with
Throughout his career, Liam Neeson has established himself as one of Northern Ireland’s premier actors. He’s been awarded a Bafta, three Golden Globes, two Tony Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award on several occasions. Quite simply, it’s clear that Neeson is one of the biggest talents to have come out of his country.
His early efforts in the likes of The Bounty and The Mission made Neeson a promising talent before Schindler’s List, Nell, Rob Roy, Michael Collins and Les Miserables cemented in place in the pantheon of the cinematic greats. Neeson followed up on his late 20th-century success with features in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Gangs of New York and Taken.
During an interview with IndieWire, Neeson once spoke of his favourite directors of those that he’d had the fortune to work with. He said: “Certainly Neil Jordan, we’ve done four films together, and we’re going to do a fifth, hopefully toward the end of the year.”
Jordan had worked with Neeson on one of his most famed roles, the 1996 biographical period drama Michael Collins about the titular Irish freedom fighter of the early 20th century. The pair had also collaborated on the likes of Breakfast on Pluto, High Spirits, and most recently, Marlowe, proving that they both trust one another with their creative endeavours.
Neeson continued: “Steven Spielberg is magnificent. He really is. He’s just fantastic. Peter Mullan, we’ve done two films.” Neeson had worked with Spielberg on the amazing Schindler’s List, certainly one of his best performances, while he also worked with Mullan on 1990’s The Big Man (known in the US as Crossing the Line).
The Irish actor then took the opportunity to express the fact that he believes that there should be more women directors. “Kathryn Bigelow, I worked with a little over 20 years ago. She was terrific,” he said. “I just wish there were more. In those hundred films, there was Kathryn and Angela Pope years ago.”
Going back some way, there also looks to be a director to which Neeson owes so much. Of the Excalibur director John Boorman, the actor said: “He was a wonderful mentor to us – Gabriel Byrne, Ciaran Hinds, myself. He’d bring us behind the camera, show us what he’s looking at, give the reason why he’s shooting it this way, and just explain what the camera does, the different ways he was going to shoot us.”
