Liam Neeson has gained huge prominence in the industry as an action hero. The star has been seen in a whole lot of action thriller projects that have elevated his stardom to huge levels. It is natural for an action star of his stature to face extreme challenges while filming these scenes. When the actor spoke to Jimmy Kimmel, he revealed one of the most challenging scenes that he shot with Christian Bale for Batman Begins.
Although Liam Neeson was recently seen showing his distaste for superhero flicks, the actor portrayed one of the best villains in Christopher Nolan’s 2005 movie. Batman Begins acted as a pilot for Nolan’s critically and commercially acclaimed The Dark Knight trilogy and presented Neeson as Ra’s al Ghul.
Liam Neeson’s worst experience during Batman Begins filming
Batman Begins started one of the most renowned trilogies and established Christian Bale as a prominent face in the industry. The movie also showed Liam Neeson as the antagonist Ra’s al Ghul. The movie also led the Irish actor to have an unforgettable experience in Iceland.
The incident was revealed in a 2021 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live when the Star Wars actor spoke about the training scene of Batman in Batman Begins. With Christopher Nolan as the director of the movie, it can be well precedented that the cast and crew must have a hard time working under challenging situations instead of CGI tricks coming into play. The incident occurred when the crew was filming for the movie in Iceland.
“I did a scene with Christian Bale in ‘Batman Begins’ 15… 14-15 years ago in Iceland. And we were having — I was teaching him how to fight with these little swords, and we were literally fighting at the base of this huge glacier that had a pond of ice at the front, and we had ice wranglers. So, Christian and I would be on doing our dialogue and fighting and stuff, and suddenly the ice wranglers would shout ‘Stop, everybody off the ice,’ and we’d all come off very quick, and this glacier would move maybe two inches.”
Soon after that, the crew heard a very weird noise. This scared both the stars who found themselves questioning whether they should return to the ice to shoot the full sequence or not. Liam Neeson added:
“And the noise that came up through the earth, and seeing this ice buckle and then settle again, was very, very frightening. And then they’d say ‘Okay, go back on the ice again!’ So Christian and I’d be looking at each other like, ‘should we be doing this?'”
The glacier where they filmed is the second-largest glacier in Europe and left a lasting impression on all those who had to go through that experience. Not only Liam Neeson but Christian Bale and the other stars also had their takes on the whole incident.
Christian Bale also had a hard time filming the Iceland sequence
Christian Bale is already known for taking challenges with the magnificent body transformations he goes through. But the actor also supported Liam Neeson’s statement and added how much scary the situation actually was. The actor admitted that if the crew would have taken some more days to film, the frozen lake would have returned to its actual form.
“We were out there, and it was splitting — there were big cracks appearing down it — and we all had to stand still and not break it. By the next day, there was all this water again.”
The whole filming scenario was filmed with utmost precaution as even the smallest misstep could have led any of the stars to face dire consequences. Another producer also added how the raging storm shown in the movie was also practically shot instead of using CGI. This also shows how the minimalistic usage of CGI leads Nolan’s movies to have such an impact on the audience.
It can’t be denied that Liam Neeson’s decision to step back from the action thriller genre will surely make us miss him more. But the Clash of the Titans still has some movies in this genre waiting for their release which will let us watch our favorite action hero in a few more projects.
Batman Begins can be streamed on Max.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live
