Liam Neeson’s career took a turn by the beginning of 2009 after his one film propelled him to the status of an action star. From 2008-2014, Neeson starred in three films in the Taken franchise, where he plays former CIA operative Bryan Mills. However, Neeson has one major regret in the film which made fans fall in love with the film in the first place.
During the filming of Taken, Neeson’s driver pointed out the amount of killing he does in the film. Neeson was embarrassed by the driver’s question even though all his kills in the film were bad guys.
Liam Neeson Was Embarrassed By The Amount Of Kills In Taken
Liam Neeson‘s Bryan Mills inflicted some serious damage on the bad guys in the Taken franchise. In the first film, the character travels across the globe to find his daughter who was kidnapped during a vacation to France. Mills threatens the Albanian kidnappers to leave his daughter alone with his famous line in the movie.
The kidnappers make the biggest mistake by ignoring Mills’ threats and face the wrath of the retired CIA operative. Needless to say, he takes out endless bad guys on his way to finding his daughter. The amount of people that the character kills concerned Neeson’s driver.
During an interview with ScreenRant, Neeson revealed how his driver had an interesting question to ask him during the filming of Taken. His driver got his hands on the script and was through just 40 pages when he was disturbed by one thing. The driver mentioned to Neeson that his character killed 26 people in the 40 pages that he read. Neeson shared with ScreenRant:
I had a driver when I was doing Taken, the first Taken movie 15 years ago I think it was, and we were shooting in LA for the first week, and at the end of the first week, my driver as he dropped me off at the hotel, he said, ‘I’ve started to read the script of Taken, I’ve got to page 40. It says you’ve taken the lives of 26 people.’
Neeson shared that he felt quite embarrassed by the driver’s question and didn’t know how to answer his question. The Phantom Menace actor shared that he felt as if the driver had accused him of doing nasty things to these people. He shared:
I didn’t know how to answer that. I felt quite embarrassed. They said in such a way as if, ‘Are you sure you’ve read this script? Because you do nasty things to people.’
It appears that Neeson hasn’t forgiven himself for his role in the films, but he continues to take on the action roles. Besides Taken, he appeared in several action films in the 2010s, including The A-Team, The Grey, Cold Pursuit, and others.
Liam Neeson Made A Fortune With Taken Franchise
Taken was a profitable franchise, earning $929 million at the box office with its three movies. According to The Numbers, the first film made $226.9 million at the box office. The second film was the top-grossing film in the franchise, with $377.8 million in earnings. The third film also earned $327.6 million at the box office.
Liam Neeson made a good fortune from the three films. According to writer Robert Mark Kamen, Taken was a money machine for the actor (via Uproxx). Neeson earned $5 million for the first film, $15 million for the second, and $20 million for the third film (via Celebrity Net Worth).
Neeson’s latest flick, In the Land of Saints and Sinners, debuted on Netflix in April after premiering at the 80th Venice Film Festival. He is all set to play the role of Frank Drebin Jr. in The Naked Gun, taking over the film series from the late Leslie Nielsen.
Taken is now available for rent on AppleTV+. Taken 2 and Taken 3 are now available for streaming on Hulu.
