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Liam Neeson has retired (again) from action movies, for the same reason he said he was quitting before
How old can an action movie star be? Liam Nesson wonders, as he looks for a way out
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Liam Neeson didn't become a bonafide action movie star until 30 years into his acting career, but when he did, it came to define him as an actor - even overshadowing his role in the Star Wars movies and the seminal film Schindler's List. But now at age 72, Neeson says he's quitting the genre. But as some us recall, he's quit before, seven years ago. And both times he quit, the reason has been the same.
"They're still throwing serious money at me to do that stuff. I'm like: 'Guys... I'm sixty-f******-five.' Audiences are eventually going to go: 'Come on,'" Neeson told Sky News in 2017.
Seven years later, Neeson tells People "it has to stop at some stage. You can’t fool audiences. I don’t want Mark [Vanselow, his longtime stuntman since 2006] to be fighting my fight scenes for me."
As we've learned, Neeson has a very particular set of skills. Skills he acquired over a very long career. But after 2008's Taken, he has been typecast as the action star - leaving him little in the way of non-action movie/tv offerings he'd rather do instead of the latest action movie script.
Neeson recently wrapped filming on The Naked Gun reboot, and has signed on to film four movie action movies. According to People, Neeson says he'll stop doing action movies "maybe the end of next year."
It seems Neeson doesn't want to retire from acting, but is looking for other roles outside of the action genre to keep going in at the pay he's accustomed to. Back in 2020, he joked that The Naked Gun reboot would "either finish my career or bring it in another direction. I honestly don't know."
Maybe it will, and it'll be in his favor.
The Naked Gun is set to debut August 1, 2025.
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