{"id":314070,"date":"2025-08-03T08:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T08:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/314070\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T08:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T08:31:10","slug":"liam-neeson-is-happy-to-talk-a-little-shit-about-qui-gon-jinn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/314070\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Neeson is happy to talk a little shit about Qui-Gon Jinn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liam Neeson is out on the promo tour at the moment, producing lots of fun interview moments and soundbites in support of his new Naked Gun<\/a> movie. (And, so far at least, no incredibly worrying, racially tinged revenge fantasies<\/a>. Hooray!) That includes Neeson looking back on his long and storied career, sometimes with reverence\u2014when, say, talking about Schindler\u2019s List\u2014and sometimes not so much.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

Case in point: Neeson\u2019s conversation with\u00a0GQ this week\u00a0about filming Star Wars: Episode 1\u2014The Phantom Menace, and his role as surprisingly ineffective Jedi mentor Qui-Gon Jinn. Describing the general style of the film\u2019s swordfights as \u201ccowboys in armor,\u201d Neeson recounts the famous story in which he and Ewan McGregor both got caught making the lightsaber noises with their mouths the first time they used them in a scene. But also, the Taken star has some notes: \u201cI thought my death was a bit namby-pamby,\u201d he remarks,\u00a0suggesting that a true Jedi Master wouldn\u2019t have fallen for\u2014in Neeson\u2019s words\u2014the old \u201c\u2018Oh, I\u2019m going for your face! No, I\u2019m not, I\u2019m going for your stomach.\u2019 \u2018Oh, you got me!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Neeson seems ever-so-slightly amused about the whole process, noting that George Lucas specifically told him that he doesn\u2019t really enjoy directing actors, and only really comes alive when in the editing bay. (Giving his impression of Lucas\u2019 directing style, Neeson deadpanned, \u201cNatalie, a little bit faster. Liam, a little bit faster there.\u201d) Also, that same interview\u2014a career-wide retrospective\u2014 briefly gives the viewer a taste of the actor\u2019s impression of flying blue stereotype creature Watto, in case that was something you were actively missing from your life.<\/p>\n