FUN OF A GUN

Liam hails 'terrific' co-star Pamela as pair team up for screwball caper

- BY KEITH FALKINER

WHEN you think of Liam Neeson's body of work, notably the Taken action films, comedy is not the first thing that comes to mind.

The Northern Irish actor, 73, is known for playing a tough protagonist in crime thrillers, including in the three Taken movies as former CIA operative Bryan Mills, as well as Retribution and In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, both released in 2023.

But for American actor and producer Seth MacFarlane, 51, the creator of adult animated sitcoms Family Guy and American Dad!, Neeson was the perfect choice for his latest venture: a fourth film in The Naked Gun comedy franchise.

The pair had worked together previously on 2014's western comedy, A Million Ways To Die In the West, which saw Oscar-nominated Neeson playing a gunslinger, while Neeson also had a small part in Ted 2.

"He was just so funny. Dead serious, with this ridiculous dialogue. I feel like that was the first time I thought there might be a version of a Leslie Nielsen-type comedy that Liam would be funny in," recalls MacFarlane.

Another feather in Neeson's comedy cap, which MacFarlane references, is a 2011 episode of Ricky Gervais's Life's Too Short which sees Neeson expressing his desire to be a comedy actor with a deadpan delivery.

"There he was, doing improv with Stephen Merchant, Ricky and Warwick Davis. That was an indicator that maybe this was a guy who could be mined for comedy at some point," MacFarlane explains.

Ballymena star Neeson also made a memorable cameo as a police officer in hit Irish comedy Derry Girls.