Liam Neeson Initially Disliked His Iconic Taken Speech

Liam Neeson was not originally a fan of his now-legendary speech in “Taken.” The Oscar nominee wasn’t thrilled with the speech in the 2008 action franchise film, which has now become a meme many times over.

In the blockbuster, Neeson’s character’s daughter is kidnapped, and while on the phone to the criminals, he delivers an iconic monologue. The speech goes: “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

The lines are arguably some of the most quoted in recent movie history, but the silver screen veteran didn’t see it that way initially. The 72-year-old previously told Vanity Fair, “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.”

The hit movie sparked two sequels, a spin-off TV show, and grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide. However, the “Love Actually” star actually thought it wouldn’t be successful. He explained, “I thought, ‘Well, this is going to go straight-to-video. A short little European thriller, it might play okay for a couple of weeks in France and then it will go straight-to-video. Fox took it, though, and they very cleverly did a good trailer and put it during various sporting events around the country and they made it a real success. I remember the first weekend, it came in at No. 3, and then it came up to No. 2 and then No. 1, and then it went down to No. 4, and it came up to No. 3 again. It just had this extraordinary cycle.”

Neeson is currently gearing up to play 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 available for streaming on Hulu.

Source: Vanity Fair