Summary
- Liam Neeson had a successful career post-Star Wars, featuring major blockbusters and action films.
- Neeson had some reservations about his character’s death in The Phantom Menace.
- Neeson had a positive experience working on The Phantom Menace and enjoyed returning to the role for Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Liam Neeson is one of the most beloved and respected actors of his generation. Of course, to people of a certain age, he’s most associated with the Star Wars franchise and his character in that series, Qui-Gon Jinn, famously met an untimely death that Neeson wasn’t too fond of.
Liam Neeson’s storied career can be somewhat succinctly broken down into a few pre-Star Wars and post-Star Wars eras. Throughout the 1980s, he had his early, lesser-known roles in films like Excalibur, The Mission, and The Dead Pool. A talented actor, no doubt, but one who wasn’t selling movie tickets to a broad audience. Then, 1993’s Schindler’s List hit, and he became a go-to actor for prestige dramas in Hollywood. Films like Nell, Michael Collins, and Les Misérables followed, continuing to build his reputation as a reliable actor with gravitas. Then he was essentially the lead character of and was first billed in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. Neeson then became a blockbuster star, showing up in films like Batman Begins, Clash of the Titans, and three Chronicles of Narnia movies. He also had a monster sleeper hit with 2008’s Taken, which turned him into an action star overnight and launched the latest phase of his career, where he starred in thrillers like The Grey, Non-Stop, and Run All Night. Now, thanks to The Naked Gun, he’s a comedy star as well. Liam Neeson has done it all.
Neeson recently sat down for a lengthy career retrospective with GQ. It gave the legendary actor a chance to run through his experiences working on famous films like Schindler’s List and lesser-known ones like Darkman. Perhaps most interesting were his comments about playing Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace. “I thought my death was a bit namby-pamby,” he elaborated. “I’m supposed to be a Master Jedi, you know? My character fell for that? ‘Oh, I’m going for your face! No, I’m not, I’m going for your stomach!’ ‘Oh! You got me!’ It’s like, ‘Oh, please.’ Hardly a master Jedi.”
Liam Neeson Was Not Wild About Qui-Gon Jinn’s Death Scene In The Phantom Menace
Let’s Be Honest: He Should’ve Been Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anyway
Outside of his quibbles with Qui-Gon’s death scene, Neeson seemed to enjoy his time working on The Phantom Menace. He claimed that when he and Ewan McGregor first drew their lightsabers, they began doing the iconic sounds with their mouths. This prompted George Lucas to respond, “Boys, you don’t have to do that. We can add that stuff.” Neeson also claimed that Lucas “doesn’t like directing, period” and that the famous director only “starts enjoying the process” when he gets into the editing suite afterward.
Neeson also enjoyed getting to briefly return to the role for the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series more than twenty years after The Phantom Menace hit theaters: “It was nice to recreate that and be with Ewan after, I don’t know, 18 [or] 20 years, you know?” Given how illustrious and successful Neeson has been in the years since Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace rocked movie theaters everywhere, it makes sense that he would look back on his time in a galaxy far, far away with fondness.
The majority of the Star Wars franchise is currently available to stream on Disney+.
Source: Youtube/GQ
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