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Liam Neeson has an illustrious acting career stretching all the way back to the 1970s, which includes notable roles like his Academy Award-nominated performance in Schindler’s List and his stint as Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
The Irish actor also worked with Martin Scorsese on Gangs of New York and alongside Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale for Batman Begins, and it’s safe to say he can hold his own while sharing a set with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
However, you could argue his time in the entertainment industry is primarily defined by the “Neesonssance” that began when he accepted the leading role in Taken, which marked the start of a lengthy era where he’s dedicated the bulk of his efforts to making the kind of movies that make dads say “Oh hell yeah” out loud to no one in particular while watching them.
If you’re somehow not familiar with Taken, Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a former CIA operative who is forced out of retirement after his teenage daughter’s plan to follow U2 (of all bands) around Europe hits a bit of a snag when she’s kidnapped by human traffickers.
The movie’s most memorable scene involves Neeson talking to one of the criminals during a phone call where he warns him about the “particular set of skills” he possesses while unsuccessfully attempting to convince them to let her go (an exchange that marks the start of one of the more satisfying quests for revenge ever captured on film).
Taken was a crowd-pleasing hit that ultimately raked in over $226 million at the box office and spawned a couple of (admittedly subpar) sequels.
It also allowed Neeson to ride the action wave he still hasn’t hopped off of despite announcing his plans to leave the genre behind in 2017—and it appears no one is more surprised by that development than the actor himself.
Neeson addressed his initial feelings about Taken during an interview with Vanity Fair where he admitted he thought it would be a “straight-to-video film” while calling out his own performance in the aforementioned scene, saying:
“I certainly did sound scary, but I thought it was corny. It was a cornball.
I really did feel that. It’s nice to be proven wrong.”
I guess that just proves artists really are the worst critics of their own work.