How many villains has Liam Neeson killed in movies? More than a fun question, it’s an analysis of the actor’s career in the action genre. After all, Neeson became part of one of punch-and-ball cinema’s most successful franchises. Also a frequent figure in convoluted, bizarre, and mostly ultra-violent storylines. But despite what it may seem, the Irish interpreter does not seem to regret his curious journey through all kinds of films on the big screen.
Liam Neeson began his long and successful career in period dramas and low-key historical films. He was even nominated for an Oscar for his insightful and elegant portrayal of Oscar Schindler. Success Schindler’s List, by Steven Spielberg, made him one of the great actors of cinema. Also a frequent figure in major arguments and with considerable emphasis on the dramatic.
But from 2008, the actor’s story changed dramatically. All thanks to his role as former CIA agent Brian Mills from the saga Revenge, one of the most popular in the action genre. From the first time he played the role, Liam Neeson surprised by endowing one-dimensional and violent characters with a strange character. Now best known for his formidable depiction of the usual “one man army”, Neeson is an unclassifiable stage in today’s cinema.
From this point of view, the actor reflected on how the genre has changed the way he understands cinema. At the same time, even to understand what an actor can or cannot do in Hollywood. From his participation in major franchises like Star Wars and Batman, to his violent hero par excellence. Liam Neeson has shown that an actor can grow in many different directions while maintaining his considerable position in the theater world.
Liam Neeson: a man on a mission
For Liam Neeson, it came as a surprise to become such a hugely popular figure in the action genre. Indeed, since 2008, the actor played essentially identical characters. The strong and silent man, able to destroy everything in his path through a lens, has become his most recognizable trademark. But beyond that, for Neeson, it was also a way to rediscover how action is able to reinvent itself for a new audience.
Neeson’s new action hero is a different man than Chuck Norris or Arnold Schwarzenegger used to play. Also, far from the characterful and strange John McClane of Bruce Willis. Liam Neeson’s characters stand out for their ability to turn revenge into total fact. And moreover, for making it clear that the destruction he will perform to accomplish what will become his mission, will be total. Everything, while the actor gives the character a curious humanity that ends up astonishing in all its curious ability.
Memory, the latest addition to Liam Neeson’s action movie saga, hits US screens on April 29. And about the first, ScreenRant asked the actor how many bad guys he’s killed on the big screen. The 69-year-old actor, who has admitted more than once that the change of registration allows him to enjoy a curious revival of his career, responded with a certain cruel philosophy.
“I had a driver when I was making the first film Revenge fifteen years ago. We were shooting in Los Angeles and at the end of the first week, the man was like, ‘Mr. Neeson, can I ask you a question? I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ He says, “I started reading the script for Revenge, I got to page 40, I think he said. He says you took the lives of 26 people. He didn’t know what to say to that. I felt quite embarrassed. He said it in a way like: are you sure you read this script? Because you do nasty things to people.”
Liam Neeson for Screen Rant
So Liam Neeson doesn’t have an answer on how many people he’s killed onscreen; this number in the hundreds. Although he at least knows the exact number of murders in his first major film of the genre. The questioning is weird – beyond funny – as it’s an evolution in a genre known for anonymous murders. But for Liam Neeson, gave action films a certain adult and sophisticated air, It is a significant problem. “It’s not about who to kill, but why,” he said in the same interview.
Liam Neeson’s next movie, Memory This will lead him to team up with actress Mónica Bellucci. The production, directed by Martin Campbell, is based on the novel De Zaak Alzheimer by Jef Geeraerts. The plot revolves around a criminal organization, which will haunt Neeson’s character when he refuses to continue killing. Again, a curiously human take on the usual action hero that Hollywood is used to showing.
