E
ven over the phone, you can feel Liam Neeson’s gravitas. It doesn’t matter that he’s hopped on the line for a “Last Word” interview loosely centered around his remarkable comedic turn in The Naked Gun reboot. This is still a man who’s played both Jedi master and Batman supervillain; starred in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and reinvented himself as a late-career action star in Taken. So when Neeson responds to a simple, “How are you?” with a deadpan, “Worse,” it takes a moment to register that the celebrated actor is actually gunning for giggles.

The Naked Gun, which opened this past weekend, is one of the funniest big-studio comedies to hit theaters in years. And so many of its breathless, breakneck gags succeed because of the tension between our expectations of Neeson — which he leans into onscreen — and the goofy havoc he wreaks as Frank Drebin Jr. It’s perfect casting, an implicit nod to the fact that the man who played the elder Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun films and their TV predecessor, Police Squad!, was another actor better known for his dramatic turns, Leslie Nielsen. 

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Neeson discusses his dead-serious approach to comedy, the lessons he learned as an amateur boxer, the importance of punctuality, and much more.

What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
Stay poised, an old professional actor told me once, right.

What do you wish someone had told you about acting when you were just getting started?
That the highs would’ve been great, and the lows would have been very low.

What’s the worst part of success?
Someone once said, “It’s terrible when people are talking about you, and it’s even worse when they’re not talking about you.”

Do you have any acting heroes?
I’ll go back to the old days, Forties, Fifties. I did very much like Spencer Tracy as a performer, because he was always so real. Without putting on false noses and strange accents and all this sort of shit — he was just always present and real.

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How have you tried to embody that in your work?
If the audience believes the words coming out of your mouth, that’s good enough for me.

What are some of your favorite books? 
I love crime novels. Nordic noir. There’s one guy who passed away a few years ago, Henning Mankell. Terrific Nordic writer. 

What music still moves you the most?
Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, U2. I like Pink Floyd’s The Wall very much. I did see it in concert in 1983, maybe in London. It was terrific.

You haven’t done a lot of comedy. What intrigued you about starring in a Naked Gun reboot?
I was approached by Seth MacFarlane to gauge my interest in this. And I did see the original productions, which I enjoyed — they were a good giggle. So, I said I was interested, and we left it at that. Then I got the script, and I thought it was funny, certainly a bunch of giggles.

You were hilarious as yourself in Ricky Gervais’ series Life’s Too Short. The conceit was that you wanted to get into comedy and were terrible at it. What do you remember about filming that?
People thought it was improvised, but it was far from it. Every comma, semicolon was written by Ricky. You know, I was a bit nervous about doing it because I thought I’d be laughing all the time. But Ricky was the one that was laughing all the time. It gave me confidence.

What comedies are you a fan of?
As a kid, I’d go to a lot of Saturday matinees, and I adored Laurel and Hardy, those late-1920s, 1930s, little 20-minute comedies they shot. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Then more modern day, Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller’s film, always makes me laugh. Will Ferrell movies. Mike Myers, Austin Powers. And Napoleon Dynamite I thought was terrific.

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You grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. I’m curious if comedy played an important role in your life during what was otherwise a very violent time?
Certainly cinema was a big release, comedy or not. It was a turbulent time. And escape was very, very important. School sports — I was an amateur boxer as a kid.

I read that you had a try out for the Irish soccer team Bohemian F.C.
I don’t know where that story came from — it’s totally not true! I have two left feet when it comes to soccer.

Is there anything from your experiences as a boxer that you’ve carried with you?
Preparation, and keeping fairly physically fit for life, and certainly for playing leads in movies. Because the work’s exacting, there are long days. It behooves you to be reasonably fit.

Like yourself, original Naked Gun star Leslie Nielsen came from a more dramatic background. How did your dramatic sensibilities inform your comedic ones? 
In the movie, I try and play every scene as serious as I can. Maybe a little heightened for certain things. I don’t play for comedy — that’s one rule I set for myself. Don’t play the comedy. That hopefully will come across with your fellow actors. 

Have you seen the videos of him doing interviews with the fart machine?
I did. I saw a couple.

Even those he manages to play pretty straight. 
Yeah, he keeps it straight, but it’s sweet, innocent schoolboy humor. 

Comedy is all about timing, but so is action and fight choreography. Do you see any kind of connections between the two?
I suppose there is. That’s an interesting question. You rely on your director and your editor, of course, certainly with fight sequences. In The Naked Gun, I was surrounded by terrific actors and actresses, especially Pamela Anderson. She’s outstanding in the film — she’s sexy, funny, and just great to work with. 

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In Taken, you famously say, “What I do have are a very particular set of skills.” What particular skills have you acquired over your career? 
Certainly with acting, you’re always questing. You know what I mean? I never feel I’ve done it. There’s always stuff to learn, with different actors and actresses you’re working with, as well as different directors. As I said earlier, I just try to be real. And show up on time. That’s very important. I hear disturbing stories about actors and actresses who are very gifted, but show up on the set two, three, four hours late. I would never work with those people. I think it’s so insulting.

Punctuality is key.
Yes, very, very important, I think. Because you have a crew of like 60, 70, 80 people waiting for you. The very least you can do is give them the respect by turning up on time.