The “Taken” star admitted that he’s eyeing 2025 as his last year making action films.
Liam Neeson has a very particular set of skills, skills he has acquired over a very long career…. and he’s almost ready to put them to rest.
During a recent interview with PEOPLE, the Taken star admitted that the clock is ticking on his days as an action star.
“I’m 72,” Neeson told the outlet. “It has to stop at some stage.”
Since becoming an unlikely action icon in his mid-50s, Neeson has always performed his fight scenes — though he also calls upon his longtime collaborator Mark Vanselow when it comes to more elaborate stunts. While age has yet to hold him back during production, the actor isn’t interested in waiting long enough for it to become a factor.
“You can’t fool audiences,” he continued. “I don’t want Mark to be fighting my fight scenes for me.”
While Neeson has not officially announced his retirement from action, he shared that he’s eyeing 2025 as his final year in the genre. “Maybe the end of next year,” he added. “I think that’s it.”
In the meantime, action fans have nothing to fear: Neeson has more than a few action-packed thrillers in the can. Along with Cold Storage and the upcoming sequel film, The Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky, Neeson is set to headline a reboot of the action comedy, The Naked Gun from The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer. Before any of those films arrive on the big screen, Neeson will be showcasing his special skills in the Absolution, a thriller due in theaters on Nov. 1.
Helmed by Hans Petter Moland, the film stars Neeson as a man who — and this may sound familiar — exacts revenge on the criminal enterprise who made the mistake of getting on his bad side. This time around, Neeson stars as a low-level criminal and boxer afflicted with CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
Moland, who previously directed Neeson in 2019’s Cold Pursuit, not only praised his ability to hold his own during action sequences but also his ability to inject the genre with humanity.
“When he’s immersed in the character he is, you see the hurt, you see the pain,” said Moland. “He becomes that man.”
After making a name for himself with dramatic performances in Schindler’s List and Kinsey, the Irish actor played mentor roles in films like Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Batman Begins. Then along came Taken, which marked a surprise second act for Neeson after grossing $145 million in 2008 and eventually spawning two lucrative sequels. In the aftermath, Neeson began starring in similar violent revenge thrillers.
Though he hasn’t slowed his pace in recent years, this isn’t the first time Neeson has suggested an end to his career as a revenge-seeking bruiser — he also warned fans that the end was nigh back in 2015. “Maybe two more years,” he told reporters at the time. “If God spares me and I’m healthy and stuff. But after that, I’ll stop [the action], I think.”
The then 62-year-old added, “I’m in a very—career-wise—great place. The success of certainly the Taken films, Hollywood seems to see me in a different light. I get sent quite a few action-oriented scripts, which is great. I’m not knocking it. It’s very flattering. But there is a limit, of course.”
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