ABC/Randy Holmes(LOS ANGELES) — Sure, he starred as the titular hero Darkman back in the day, and played the heavy Ra’s al Ghul in Batman Begins, but Liam Neeson says he’s done with superhero movies.
While he doesn’t go full Scorsese — expressing he does “admire” them — Neeson tells Entertainment Tonight, “I’m really not a huge fan of the genre.”
He adds, “I think it’s Hollywood with all the bells and whistles and the technical achievements and stuff — which I admire — but I have no desire to go into the gym for three hours every day to pump myself up to squeeze into a Velcro suit with a cape.”
He adds, diplomatically, “I admire the actors and I know some of the actors who do it, and do it fantastically.”
For that matter, while he did revisit his Star Wars: Episode I character Qui-Gon Jinn — at least in voiceover, in both Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — fans shouldn’t expect Neeson to wield a lightsaber again, either.
“The first Star Wars, I was in that, that was 22 years ago, and I enjoyed that, because it was novel and that was new. I was acting to tennis balls, which were ultimately going to be little fuzzy, furry creatures and stuff. That was interesting, acting-wise, to try and make that seem real, but that was the last. It’s quite exhausting.”
However, Neeson, who in his 60s became an action movie star with the Taken series and similar thrillers, isn’t similarly done with that genre.
“I’m just trying to make them real, even though they’re absolutely crazy Tom and Jerry-esque type situations. But I try. If it’s dumb dialogue…”
He confesses, “Sometimes it works, other times, it doesn’t.”
Neeson currently co-stars in the drama Ordinary Love.
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