Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Liam Neeson

Episode Date: February 6, 2022

Long before acting ever crossed his mind, Liam Neeson was an altar boy and a promising young boxer growing up in Northern Ireland. But once he found the stage, he put down the gloves and eventually became one of Hollywood’s favorite actors. In this week’s Sunday Sitdown, Willie Geist gets together with Neeson to talk about his prolific career of roles ranging from Schindler’s List to Taken to the fan-favorite Love Actually, plus his latest performance in the new action film Blacklight. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Got a good one for you this week with one of Hollywood's great actors. Truly, Liam Neeson. What a fascinating career over 40 years. If you trace it, his first movie was 1981 X-Calibur, which became a cult classic. He appeared in that with Helen Mirren. He'd been plucked from the stages of Belfast and Dublin. He's a native of Northern Ireland grew up there during the Troubles, was a talented and promising young boxer before he found the stage. But from Excalibur forward, think of all the roles in his career. Schindler's List for which he was nominated for the Oscar, Michael Collins, Kinsey. They go on and on and on. Then into new audiences with Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, a billion-dollar movie, Love Actually. I know I'm leaving out your favorite movie right now, but there are so many, it's hard to include them all. And then this fascinating turn in his

career takes place in 2008 when he's cast as an action hero in Taken with the iconic scene about his having a particular set of skills warning someone on the other end of the phone. Spawned two more of those movies, massive hits together, those made a billion dollars. And now he's in a new film called Blacklight. Again, at 69 years old, an action hero. And as you're about to hear, Liam has a good sense of humor about that. just a treat to sit down and talk with him, a joy to hear these stories about turning points in his career,

moments in his life, some really emotional moments we share when he's talking about Schindler's List and the making of that film. Just for some background, we got together in a neighborhood we share in New York City at a restaurant called the Atlantic Grill, his favorite spot to duck in from time to time.

Red leather booth, empty restaurant, me and Liam Neeson talking through his career, what else could you ask for? Liam Neeson, right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Liam, thanks for doing this, sir. My pleasure. Nice to see you. Nice to see you.

In a neighborhood joint like this. I just got finished watching the movie. Yes. Blacklight. And I got to tell you, you are still kicking ass, if I may. I mean, you've become this sort of action hero since taken forward. Tell me about the movie. Well, I play an undercover agent that doesn't exist in the official books.

I work for the head of the FBI, played by my friend, dear friend Aidan Quinn. And my job is to go in and extract government agents who are infiltrate government agents who are infiltrated. various organizations. And if these agents get in too deep, my job is to pull them back to safety, you know. But there comes a point where I discover some kind of a sleazy plot where power is abusing that power. And it makes me question what I've been doing that power. And it makes me question what I've been doing. doing as a fixer for 20 years off the payroll. Then my family's brought into it and their safety becomes a big concern. My relationship with the head of the FBI, played by Aidan, comes into question and there's

thrills and spills along the way. Well said. If that made sense. Well said, absolutely. And there are some fight scenes in here. we were talking a minute ago, you take some pride in doing those fight scenes yourself. Not all the stunts, I know. Yes.

But you enjoy that, don't you? I love it. I love it, Willie. I was an amateur boxer from age of 9 until I was 17, and I just, I just, I just love that physicality. So when I met Luke Besant in Shanghai at a film festival that my wife was attending, I had read the script. take one the first thing.

And he kind of knew I didn't stand a chance, but I went up to look and said, listen, I used to box, I've done this, I've done sword fights in various films. They said, would you ever consider me for this? And so push came to shove, and they eventually offered it to me. And there was three months in Paris, hanging out with these stunt guys, working out every day, doing all this sort of stuff.

And it was great. and I honestly thought it would go straight to video. It was a simple little story. I thought it was a tight, well-crafted little European movie. But Fox took it when it came out, and they showed clips of it at various big sporting events. And it became successful, much to my surprise. And now I started being offered all these acts.

description. I'm going, wow. The lead is 29 years of age, scored out, made 55, 56, 57. So I turned 70 this year, so I'm still getting away with it. And you're still getting those action movie offers? Not all the time, but there's a couple out there. Yeah. Well, Taken, obviously, it was a huge hit. Like you say, you didn't expect much of it. It goes on to make a couple hundred million dollars, and then a second one and a third one, and they're just this massive phenomenon. Were you surprised after the fact by the extent of its success?

It took on a life of its own? Very surprised. Yeah. Very surprised. I just, I have to tell you a story, right? We have a Down syndrome boy in our family, and he's 30 years of age, and he was out with his friend,

a similar Down syndrome boy, who loves the taken movies. So my sister was talking to him and saying, you know, my brother Liam, who's in the Taken Films, he might do another one. I wonder what they'll call it. And he said, take him the piss. I thought that was brilliant.

Well, if they decided to make a fourth one, I think you've got your title. Taking the piss. I love it. Are you aware of the sort of cultural phenomenon that your speech became, the famous phone call? I have a particular set of skills. We still see it in online memes and everything else. It remains everywhere.

Are you cognizant of that? If I had five cents for every time I left a message from my son's friends, I'd be quite wealthy. Do they come with requests? They did, they on the movie. came out. Yeah. It was funny. I remember when I shot the scene to you,

I thought, this is hokey. This is just hokey. Can we cut some of these skills out of the speech? No, no, no, no. Leave them. So, anyway. The rest is history. So when you get this big stack of action movies,

what is it about a film like black light that sticks out to you? Why did this one warrant you saying, okay, this is one I want to do? There was various reasons. Mark Williams, he was the co-writer and directed it, co-produced it. He's a pal. We've worked together three times now.

This is the third movie. And got a chance to be with Aidan Quinn, who has a very dear friend. Got a chance to shoot in Melbourne, Australia. standing in for Los Angeles, no, standing in for Washington, D.C. I pay you pardon. And the story was, you know, it mixed nice action, adventure with, had a political age to it. And I found the character interesting, you know, he just wasn't a, you know, a fighter.

He was a guy who took orders and then started to question the orders because things we're starting to go askew in these government power, mainly the FBI. And inspired by J. Edgar Hoover, this kind of control freak, you know, that Aidan plays. And it's got a little nod to our times right now. I think it does. Yeah. I think it does. Yeah.

You could answer out better than I could. It does. undoubtedly so undoubtedly so so I'm so interested at your career as you said you turned 70 this year yeah the kind of why don't you tell your viewers well you said it first yes I wouldn't I wasn't it's true you said it first at the kind of projects that intrigue you that interest you something like this film then there be something completely different dramatic movie or whatever it is you have the luxury of being selective so how do you know when something is worth your time, what catches your interest?

I don't know, I get, you know, I've made my 100th movie just before Christmas. It's amazing. I was playing Raymond Chandler's classic private eye, Philip Marlowe, for Neil Jordan, who I've known for 40 years, great Irish director and writer. And so I don't know, I just, if, if I, I, It's the cup of tea scenario.

If I start reading a script and after page 5, I think, oh, I must go and make a cup of tea. That's a bad sign. So if I can get to page 90 or 95, I think, okay, I didn't get up once for a cup of tea or to use the bathroom. There's something here that I like, you know? I can intellectualize it, Willie.

It's just a feeling. Right. It's not as calculating. as people might think it is. It's a feeling. Yeah, it's just a feeling. And, you know, to meet the director or see his or her previous work, you know.

You've said a few times over the course of your career, that's it. I've done all I'm going to do. I've got this body of work and I'm walking away and it seems I was looking just ahead for you. You're as busy as you've ever been. I mean, you've got a lot on your slate. I did since

black light. I've done five. five different projects. I've been told just before Christmas. I'm very lucky, you know. Hmm. That's what it is, me. Little talent helps, too, Liam.

I don't know. You head marks, say a few lines. What's the problem? Clint Eastwood used to say, you know? Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Liam Neeson right after the break. Welcome back. Now, more of my conversation with Liam.

You mentioned your talent as a young boxer back in Northern Ireland. Yeah. Your childhood, we were talking a minute ago about growing up during the troubles. Sure. Being a boxer who became an actor. When you think back on your early years growing up there and your parents, what was that childhood like in your house but also in that country as the troubles began? It's, you know, it's strange.

And I think about it all the time, especially now that I'm a father of two boys. Yes, I grew up through the troubles when they started in 1969. I was a teenager. I never got involved because we had a great parish priest. He started a little boxing club that attracted many youngsters from the time. thugs, tough guys, guys that went on to university, guys that became engineers and teachers, all in the same little room, given it all that, you know. And some of us are still friends, you know.

And yet, when the trouble started, we were, I say we, my household at the time, we were surrounded by violence, surrounded by it. day, every night, armored cars going up and down streets and stuff. And yet, I accepted it in some way. It was part of growing up, you know. I felt I was in a cocoon. It wouldn't touch me. It didn't, really. Until last weekend, the weekend past was the anniversary of what became known as Bloody Sunday. British paratroopers murdered 13 innocent people. who were protesting about internment without trial. And people were, I was getting various messages from France and Irish friends too.

And I said, do you remember it? And I said, of course I remember it. But I especially remember the Monday afterwards. This incident occurred on the Sunday. He's murdered. It was the Monday, I found frightening, because the one. was just a feeling in the atmosphere that this has gone to spiral out of control. And it did.

And remember I was working, I don't know what age I was, 21, I was working on as a forklift truck driver. And things were bad in the Northern Ireland. And yet I would hitchhike after work up to Belfast, which was 30 miles away from my home time, to rehearse in a play with an amateur group and would hitchhag back at 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night. Now, this was a time when there were drive-by shootings, they were kidnapping, and yet I was just oblivious to it in some weird way, you know. Did you think you had to do that to escape a little bit, to insulate yourself? I think so, but the hitchhiking. I mean, I don't know what my mom and dad thought.

I just don't know. Because if it was my kids now in a situation like that, there's no way would I let them leave the house. But it's youth, isn't it? You feel you're kind of indestructible in some way. Nothing's going to happen to you. You know, bless with God, nothing did happen. When I hear stories like yours,

and I think about the film Belfast and the parent, I think about as a parent myself, Yes. How do you protect your children in a time like that? How do you tell them it's going to be okay? How do you tell them there's going to be a future? Did you feel your parents sort of having to navigate that and manage that for you? Yes, a little bit.

And they were both, you know, they were working class. My mom was a dinner lady for 34 years. My dad was a caretaker of a boys' primary school. So they were working, you know. And we'd watch the news every night. It was always the same stuff. And I guess myself and my three sisters, I think we all suffered post-traumatic stress disorder.

I can't give you exact this happened and that happened, but I'm sure. And on top of that, we lived in these little terrorist houses. On top of that, the next door neighbor's wife being beaten up by her husband, drunken husband, every weekend. When I think back on that, it's like, it's a horror show.

And I'm not sort of trying to say, yeah, I did this, I did that. It was just, that was life in this quaint little time. So what gave you hope in the middle of that, Liam? Was it... That I was going to get out. I fell in love with acting. School, school plays.

And our wonderful English teacher, Jerry McKeown, his name is. formed a little amateur company and there was a lifeline I loved it, I just fell in love with it not thinking I'm going to be an actor or a great actor

or even thinking about being professional it was just doing these plays traveling around towns at these little festivals during the troubles all these towns at these little drama festivals at Easter time and the halls would be packed

with farmers with this one with that one. To see a play. It could be Shakespeare, it could be Ibsen, could be Chekhov, Irish playwrights. It was just this need for entertainment, I guess, you know. A bit of an oasis. It was an oasis. Yeah. And a real lifeline, you know. And then at some point along the road, I remember thinking, it'd be great to do this and get paid for it. So then I started thinking, how can I make that happen? Well, I was going to ask you that. When does it move from hobby, maybe escape to career. When did you realize, oh, I can do this for a living? Maybe I'm good enough. Someone will help me pay my rent by going on stage. I applied, I went to teacher training

college for two years, Newcastle upon time. I wasn't born to be a teacher. Two of my sisters have been teachers for 35 years. They're retired on it. It just wasn't for me. How ever they had a great drama department so I spent all my time there doing plays I directed a play acted in a few little plays and up to the Edinburgh film of Edinburgh Festival with the college and so that the love of what I was doing just got deeper and deeper you know so when I went back home after this two years I didn't finish the course they failed exams And I was back home and had to get work.

I worked at this architect's office making prints. That was a reprographic assistant. And I kept telling some of the architects, I'm going to be an actor instead. So one day, this is the Gospel Tree Story. At lunchtime, he brought me in, placed me in front of the telephone and said, there's a number of the Lyric Players Theatre,

which was a professional theater in Belfast. Call them. And I was four or five of them sitting around. I thought, I started getting really worried. So anyway, I called. Right? And I got through to this lady called Mary O'Malley, who had formed the lyric players' theater in Belfast.

And I said, I blubbered out that I'm an amateur actor. I've been doing it for a few years. and I'd love to turn professional if that's possible, if there's an opening. And there was a pause, and she said, what height are you? I said, six feet four. She says, can you be up here next Thursday and prepare an Irish playwright of speech, a piece of Shakespeare, and something else, American playwright? I said, yes.

And I put the phone down, and the other guys were, well, I said, I've got an audition next Thursday up in Belfast. And I was literally like this. So Thursday came, and I was living at home at the time. Thursday came, I didn't tell my mom and dad that I wasn't going to work that day. I took the train up to Belfast, walked up to the theater from the station, many army checkpoints, many army checkpoints, been frisked all the rest of them. I didn't care about that. So I did this audition for this lady, Mary O'Malley.

It was just her and me. I was on the stage and she was sitting down. It was a small theater, about 200-seater. And I did my bits, and I don't think I was very good, but maybe she saw some sort of passion there, I don't know. So she sat me down beside her, and she started telling me how hard it is, did you. to be a professional actor. There's 70% out of work all the time.

These figures are still true, by the way. And the more she taught to turn me against being an actor, the more I thought, she's gonna offer me a job. She asked for my height, she's seen my hide, she's gonna offer me a job. And sure enough she did. She said, could you do this play next January? This was like October when I was there.

January 1976 so that afternoon I signed a contract an equity contract to become an apprentice but a professional actor I remember going

back down to the train station my feet didn't touch the ground I was shaking hands with thrills first me yeah yeah go on but it's great got the train back went into my local pub and a few glasses of Guinness I started showing my friends this contract.

And by the end of the evening, it was like an ancient parchment. I had opened it and folded it so many times. Well, of course, I forgot to tell, you know, there were no mobile phones. I forgot to tell my mom and dad what I'd done. So I staggered home about 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night. I should have been back home by 5.15. their faces were that color. I remember thinking, oh my God.

So I told them where I was and what I had done. And they were shocked. They didn't speak to me for a good week. A good week, seven days. And then my father asked me at one point, he says, so what's this play you're doing? I said, well, it's about this union organizer called Jim Larkin.

who had this famous strike in 1912, I think it was, 1913 in Dublin. And he said, who? I said, Jim Larkham. And my father said, my father marched with him in Belfast. You're going to play Jim Larkham. So that was in. Oh, my gosh. So they were skeptical of being an actor as a living.

But you got him with that role. What are the chances? That's incredible. And the rule was, I was only on stage for maybe four or five minutes. But for the rest of the play, they talk about me. They talk about Jim Larkin. Right, right. Oh, that's so cool.

The play was called The Risen People, and it was a famous strike that was put down violently. But it was a good play. So that was me. So you rise through the theater, and then you start doing some movies. You do Excalibur, I think in 80, 81.

Yeah, 1980, actually. Kim Ode in 81. Yeah, it came out in 81. Yeah. And then what were those years, if you look at it sort of X caliber, okay, now you're in the door in Hollywood a bit, and Schindler's list is until 12 years later. What are those intervening years like for you?

Because I think when we think of you as this fully formed Oscar-worthy Schindler's list and all these films you've done, but like anybody else, it was a bit of a climb, wasn't it? Yeah, there came a point. I moved to London and got a couple of mini-series, little bits and pieces. And I remember one, I was living on this basement flat near Brixton in London. It was one of those winter days where it gets dark at like three o'clock in the afternoon. And I remember thinking, F this.

I'm going down to the bank tomorrow. I had 600 pounds or something. I don't know what that is, my $700 or something. And went out to Los Angeles, knocked on doors to try and get representation. I found two terrific guys that took me on. And I said, they said, we can't do anything for you if you're living in London.

I says, right, I'll come out to L.A. I stayed in a cheap hotel, and I said, look, I don't want to be in my hotel room every day. Can you get me to meet various casting people? And they were true to their word. They said, buy a Thompson's map. Rent a car from a place called Rent a Rake. It's still an operation.

Oh, yeah. $100 a week or something or some clapped out old car. Thompson's guide on the steering wheel to find my way to Universal Studios or wherever it was, Paramount or something, to meet some casting directors. I just started getting little bits and pieces and work seemed to breed work

and look a big, big portion of its luck, you know? Being in the right place at the right time. I'll tell you one funny story. I was in New York for the first time. I had done this film called The Mission with Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, a few others.

And we shot in South America, Colombia, Argentina. And anyway, I came up to New York for the first time in my life. I had met this friend, Chuck Lowe, God rest of me, he's dead. He was in the film. And he invited me out, so I came out to New York. It was the same building Bob Tenera was living in, he was living at the top. And Bob had said, look, I want you to meet a couple of casting people. I said, Bob, I'm not here for that.

I just, I was loving seeing yellow taxis going over steam. It's just like the movies. It was all that stuff, you know. I'd walk everywhere. Anyway, Bob insisted I meet these two casting people, one of whom was Bonnie Timmerman, who's a very famous, extraordinary casting lady and producer. So I walked up to her office all the way from Tribeca

and met this lovely lady, flirted with her a little bit. I had nothing to lose. I was just meeting it because Bob said you should meet her. And after the meeting, I walked back to Tribeca. And I was leaving home, I was leaving for London the next couple of days or so. So Bob called down about 48, about a day later, and said, we have called Bonnie Timmerman ASAP.

And I said, what does ASAP mean? He says as soon as possible. So I called Bonnie Timmerman up and she had cast this show called Miami Vice. It was very successful. And it was the start, the pilot episode of the third season, I believe. And it was about an Irish terrorist, playboy terrorist, who goes to Miami and he's going to commit some atrocity. and Bonnie said to me over the phone, she says,

Liam, if you don't get this part, I'm quitting my job. That's exactly what she said. I said, well, Bonnie, what do you have to do? She says, when you get home, get all the reviews you can, amateur shows whatever theater, and fax them to me, so that I can show them to the legal department and start to get you a visa.

So push came to shove. I was on an, I, this all worked out. I was on an airplane, landed in Miami. There's a huge big stretch limo. Oh, this is that joke. I'm sorry, taking photographs, doing all this sort of stuff, you know. You know, I watched that clip just this morning. You're doing something very menacing in a white suit of some kind,

standing on a bridge in Miami. Oh, yeah. That's before Don Johnson kills me, I think. I think so. But waiting here, those. When I checked into the hotel, right, from London, I had a bag maybe that size. And the receptionist said, well, the bellboy will take your bag. I said, no, there's no need.

I can find it my way up. It's all right. No, the bell boy took my bag, right? I went up to, I was the guest star that week, so it was a suite. I was never in a suite in my life. So the guy opened the door, goes over, opens the blinds, I'm looking at Miami Beach is in front of me. And he turns the television on,

shows me how it works, and he's pointing out this and that. And I turn to the television, and it's a huge close-up of me from this miniseries, Ellis Island, I had done a couple of years before that or something. And I'm like, I was concerned, Amigo, Amigo, see, that's me.

It's a big actoral, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember thinking, I'm supposed to be here. It was as clear as day. It was like a religious experience. I was going to say, what are the odds? That's a sign from somewhere. And it was. It literally was a close-up of me.

That's incredible. So I thought, right, this is it. The decisions made. I'm going to, you know, I had this H-1 work visa. I'm going to move to L.A. sell my little place in London that's what I did so it was

you know you've done pretty well since that moment it's a lot of that but I think you create your own look too that's right yeah yeah you can be in the right place at the right time then you have to make something of that of that opportunity how did Schindler's list

then change your life and your career you get the Oscar nomination for good reason you were lauded for your performance there what did that mean to you various things I remember I had met Steve and Steven Spielberg

before in London when he was casting a film Empire of the Sun I believe it was and he wanted me to he needed an actor to read with all these kids that he was interviewing

to see he would be a star. And so I spent a day with him and working at some scenes with these kids. There was maybe over the course of the day 12, 15 kids. And I was chatting to Stephen afterwards and I said, you know, that guy was very good and this kid was really good.

Steve says, no, no, I find my guy already. He says, oh, which one? He says, no, no, it wasn't any of these. This kid called Christian Bale, who was doing a film out in Germany or something. He says, oh, so was this all a waste of time? He says, no, no, no, no. It wasn't at all. So he said to me, what age are you?

I forget what he was, 35 or something, 34. He said, you should get yourself out to Los Angeles. We need more people like you. So anyway, anyway, I was out there. He wanted to see me for Schindler's list. I had read the script and he was just beautiful. It wouldn't have changed in one comma. It was just fantastic.

I thought, I have no hope of getting this. But, so I went to Amland Studios. Stephen brought me into a room. It was just him with a camera and me. So we worked through some scenes. I had rented some 1940s. stuff from a costume, theatrical costume show. And we worked through some scenes for a good three hours, I'd say.

And I remember leaving thinking, wow, I've just had a master class with one of the world's great storytellers, film storytellers. And I was very happy. I didn't think I was going to get it, but this experience of working with Stephen was was wonderful. I just learned so much. That almost would have been enough.

That would have been enough. But I was committed to doing this play in New York by Eugene and Neil called Anna Christie. Of course. And I went and did that because I did feel the need to get back on stage. And went, met Natasha Richardson, and we eventually got married. And we did this play that was very, very successful, put roundabout theatre very much on the map at the scene.

And anyway, Stephen and his wife Kate and Kate's mother came to see the play. And I was playing a character, the opposite of Oscar Schindler, you know, this big Irish navvy who shoveled coal into a steamship, you know, every day. But anyway, they came around to the dressing room afterwards, and Kate's mother was looking quite emotional. And I gave her a hug. And apparently, when they were driving home, Kate said to Stephen, that's just what Schindler would have done.

Now, that's the story I heard. Stephen has told me it was my screen test, right? They got me the part. So, you know, there's a famous line and the man he shot Liberty Valance, you know. When the legend becomes fact, or the myth becomes fact, print the myth. So there you go. Well, I feel like it could be both. Both of those things could be true.

I mean. It was a great experience. I could see just recalling that moment conjures some emotion for you. Oh, God, yeah. Is that about the movie? Is it about the moment? It was about the movie, and it was about... I remember wrapping the play on a Sunday afternoon here in New York.

And on Monday morning, I flew out to Krakow, where we shot Shindersluss. And on Wednesday morning, like 5.30 in the morning, we were at the gates of Auschwitz. And the World Jewish Congress, I believe, didn't give Stephen permission to shoot inside Auschwitz. but the art department very cleverly made the outside of Auschwitz, the inside of Auschwitz, if that makes any sense. It was freezing cold and I wasn't being used for a few hours. And Stephen was shooting these, this train arriving and all these Jewish people, these extras, hundreds of extras coming out. And there were guys dressed as German guards with the real Alsatian dogs and stuff. And it's like, Jesus, this is a fucking...

to imagine what that was fine. Anyway, I was costumed and I was killing a bit of time. I walked down past the gates and I was looking at the huts, the real huts and stuff. Franco Lustig, who's no longer with us, Scott Ruston, who's one of

the producers. He came up to me and says, how are you feeling? I said, I'm okay. I go a bit cold, looking forward to down the scene. He says, yeah. And he says, see that hut over there? That's where I was. is this what he says yeah I was in that

six years of age well my legs and I really really got scared I thought this is this isn't acting this is this is something else here so when it came to my little

scene now I'm trying to save these Jewish people because I need them from my factory I was just fluffing the lines all the time. I just couldn't. I was in a state of shock, you know. Anyway, we eventually got the scene done. And couldn't wait to get back to the hotel. And myself and Ray Fines had a few drinks.

I was just... Well, you're not on some soundstage in L.A. I know. You're there. It was the real thing. You're there. And to see Stevens, it was the first time he had made a film without a storyboard.

And I could pick up in his energy. He was telling the story of his people, you know. And this atrocity that had happened. And it was just, it was kind of life-changing. It really was. It was a very special film. But it was Stephen's film. He made it, you know.

He made it all happen, you know. Any awards and stuff, I don't think he cared. about it. I'd won seven Academy Awards or six or something. I don't think any of us cared. It's just the fact that it was out there and it's still showing high schools and universities and stuff. I think it's only become more important. If you look at the illiteracy about history and particularly about the Holocaust for a teacher, we'll be able to put that in in a classroom and say, this is what it was like. That has more impact than any textbook in some ways. And speaking of textbooks, I'm sure you know about that.

too that's happening. Libraries, school governors are removing certain books. Just in the last few days, yeah. That is terrifying. Yep. That's leading to dictatorship, I think, you know. Books about the Holocaust. Books about the Holocaust. Yeah. Books about the slave trade. The 12 million, over 12 million, African Americans, Africans that were brought over 16, 19, they want to obliterate, you know? Yeah. That's terrifying. It is, and it's happening across the spectrum.

Stick around for more of my conversation with Liam Neeson right after a quick break. Welcome back. Now, the rest of my conversation with Liam Neeson. I don't want to keep you too long. I do have to ask you about the endurance of love actually. Oh, yes. Because our family watched it again this Christmas. I talk about a movie with legs.

It's become sort of a classic around the... the holidays. What do you think it is about that film that's so special to so many generations now? Yeah. We shot that about 15, 16 years ago. Yeah. It was a very, very good script. It was very funny. It was very touching. Richard Curtis was the writer, director. And it's funny, over Christmas, I was flicking through channels that we'd do it lock in the morning. And it was starting. And it had already started, but it was Hugh Grant narrating the first scene as real people coming out and hugging their relatives and stuff. Hugh's speech that Richard had written, it was something about, I can't quote it, but do you know all the messages from the Twin Towers, from the people that were murdered, were all messages of love. and I defy anybody

to hear that and watch it and flick to another channel. That's true. You just can't. It's true. No matter how many times you've seen it, by the way. You're still in, and your relationship with your son in that movie,

it's so special. He's cool, cool kid. I'm trying to think how old your kids were around that. Your boys were relatively young back then, right? Yeah, yeah. I was 16 years ago. Yeah, they're 25, 26. Yeah.

You must be so proud of your boys. They've grown up to do amazing things. Yeah, my honest boy is an actor. Yeah. You've acted with him. I've acted with him, yeah. And he's going up for parts. Nowadays the audition in front of iPhone.

Right. It's very, very hard. There's none of this sitting down. Exactly. Getting a feel from somebody. So he's going up for stuff. And he's going up for stuff and not getting them, getting close, getting very close, not getting it.

He says, Michael, welcome to the club, buddy. We, you know, Merrill Streep's a pal of my hand. I says, if you heard Merrill's stories and she was starting up, it would give you goosebumps. So welcome to the club buddy, you know. This is what it is to be a professional actor. And no drama school preparatory for it being out of work for a week, two weeks. That two weeks becomes six months. That six months becomes a year.

What do you do to remind yourself that you're an actor? That's your chosen profession. As you're serving people drink or cleaning up washing dishes. There's no drama schools. Teach kids how to handle that. None. There's none in England, not in America that do that. which is a huge failure, I think.

So how do you keep the faith in those moments when you are serving a drink and you think you should be in a big movie? Well, if any kid, when I say kid, I mean a young actor, actress if they ask me, I say, listen, try and learn a speech from a Shakespeare, a monologue, every two weeks or something. And keep saying it to yourself.

Then learn another one from one who's one of the classic writers. Just remind yourself this is what you do. Visit museums. Do see movies. Do see classical movies. And see how, you know, Joan Crawford acted, or Carrie Grant or Jimmy Cagney. Jimmy who? James Cagney.

So there's a lot of that, you know. But he's a good kid, and I think he's a good presence. I think he could. do okay. He comes from good stock between you and Natasha. Do you know on Natasha's side of the family, her mother's Vanessa, right now. Lynn Regrave, was Vanessa's

sister. Vanessa celebrated her 84th birthday a couple of days ago. But Lynn Goddressed her. She started doing research on her family, on her father's side.

They go back to being theatricals, actors, to the late 1700s. Wow. The late 1700s. So if Michael, my son Michael says, it's in my blood, dad, it's like, it sure is.

It's literally true. From a way back. Well, you've been so generous with your time. I really appreciate it. Congratulations on the movie. This was a delight. Thank you. Thanks, movie.

Thank you. It's great. My big thanks again to Liam for a great conversation. You can check out his new movie, Black, Black, in theaters on February 11th. And my thanks to all of you, as always, for listening. If you want to hear more of my conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click subscribe and follow so you never miss an episode.

And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.