How Robert De Niro launched Liam Neeson’s Hollywood career: “I wasn’t up for any part”
From voicing magical lions to hunting down his missing daughter to endorsing his adorable son’s drum-playing career, Liam Neeson really has done it all in Hollywood. The veteran star has consistently found work at the highest level in a variety of genres. He has one of the most recognisable voices in acting today, and even if his action films do follow the exact same formula every time, people are still clearly keen to see them.
The Northern Irishman, who will be taking over the ‘Naked Gun’ franchise as Frank Drebin Jr, began his career in the mid-1970s. After being scouted during a production of Of Mice and Men, he was cast in director John Boorman’s movie Excalibur, playing the Arthurian knight Sir Gawain. His next task was to hit it big in the United States of America, which he managed to do with a little help from an A-list pal.
Speaking to Screen Rant, Neeson revealed that his American break came about when he was visiting a friend in New York City. That friend, as it turns out, was Robert De Niro. After a bit of convincing, De Niro convinced Neeson to get in touch with casting director Bonnie Timmerman. She had worked on a number of major movies and TV shows, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Amadeus, and Trading Places.
“We got on very well!” Neeson said of Timmerman. “I wasn’t up for any part, it was just a general meeting. But before I left to go back to London, which is where I was living, Robert called down to where I was, and he said, ‘Listen, you need to call Bonnie Timmermann straight away!’ So I called her, and Bonnie said she had developed this TV show, Miami Vice, which I was kind of aware of, since it had started to kick off in Britain. And they were doing the pilot for Season 3, I believe…”
That episode turned out to be ‘When Irish Eyes Are Crying’. The plot centres on Gina Calabrese (Saundra Santiago) and her new partner, a reformed IRA member named Sean Carroon, who is later revealed to still be involved with the organisation. Neeson played Carroon, a role that changed his life. Not only was it a guest spot on a major TV show – the episode pulled in over 17 million viewers in the US – but it gave him a much-needed foot in the door. Once he moved to Hollywood to follow up on the casting, the rest of the pieces started to fall into place.
Neeson and De Niro had gotten to know each other on the set of the Roland Joffé film The Mission. The Raging Bull star fronts the project, playing a former conquistador forced to live amongst the people he conquered as penance for committing murder. As for Neeson, he has a much smaller role as a priest. Considering that one of De Niro’s movies is a reason why his co-star fell in love with cinema in the first place, this must have been quite the rush.
A successful acting career is as much about being in the right place at the right time as it is about being talented or persistent. Liam Neeson just so happened to get friendly with one of the biggest names in Hollywood history, and it paid off big time.
