Neeson, who's suddenly turned into an action star late in his career, joined Emmy-nominated Jones (Mad Men) to talk about the appeal of Unknown, the action scenes, and filming in Berlin.
Liam Neeson and January Jones Unknown Press Conference
How would you describe Unknown?Liam Neeson: "In a nutshell, I think it’s an edge of your seat thriller with a homage thrown towards Alfred Hitchcock and movies of that ilk, in the '40s, '50s, and '60s."
January, can you talk about the appeal of this role? And with this and X-Men: First Class are you looking more towards movies, and will you ever leave TV?
January Jones: "What I liked about this role was that it was something I hadn’t done before, and it was interesting and indefinable in the way that you don’t know who she is until...well, if ever. I think the audience gets to decide whether she’s a good guy or a bad guy. Like Liam said, it had a little touch of noir; an homage to the old Hitchcock films. It was fun for me."
"The question about leaving TV - Mad Men is my first stint in TV and it doesn’t really feel like TV to me. It depends on the project. Whatever keeps me interested and challenged."
Can you talk about the physical challenges of the film? How much of the stunt work did you get to do? What were the benefits of filming on location in Berlin?
Liam Neeson: "For a start, it was the coldest January and February in 20 years, and treacherously cold, too. Frost on the ground and ice, stuff like that. As you saw in the film, there’s a lot of physical activity outside. There was a challenge in that, just to execute the film in those sorts of conditions. But somehow it actually made us all closer."
Liam, can you talk about the process of picking a script and especially with this one, was there a point when you knew you wanted to do this character?
Liam Neeson: "I’m driven by script all the time. Our drama is based on the spoken word. It’s writing, writing, writing, all the time. That’s my criteria. I guess you’ll have to ask Joel [Silver] and Jaume [Collet-Serra]. I seem to have gotten a new lease on life since this Taken movie was successful. At the age of 58 – I’m sorry. Did I say 58? [At the] age of 37, it’s great to get that kind of an action hero."
How long did it take you while reading this script to guess the ending?
Liam Neeson: "I actually didn’t guess it. I really didn’t. It really surprised me."
You did a wonderful job of looking confused in this movie without overselling it. Is there an emotion that’s harder for you to act than others?
Liam Neeson: "Confusion, yeah. You work with a very good director and then they bring it out of you - it’s simple. It was difficult this time, actually."
January plays such a horrible mother on Mad Men, an ice queen. For your movies would you like to do something warm and sweet, which is what you initially appeared to be in this movie? Is that intentional?
January Jones: "What’s fun about that, being sweet? Am I typecast as being horrible? Maybe. It’s kind of great, isn’t it? I try to always do something different. I don’t think that this character has anything to do with anything I’ve ever done, and it just keeps me interested in the job to do all kinds of different things. I think that the 'sweet', as you said, can be boring. So I will try to stay away from that for everyone’s sake."
Liam, you’ve been doing action films for the last couple of years. How many of your stunts did you do yourself?
Liam Neeson: "I don’t do my own stunts. I do my own fighting, which I don’t regard as a stunt, but my dear friend and stunt double, Mark Vanselow, does all my heavy-duty stuff, and has been doing so for about 12 years now."
How did you train?
Liam Neeson: "Well, the usual thing. I keep fit as much as I can."
By running or…?
Liam Neeson: "Just my own private stuff. Lots of sex. That’ll open it up!"
Were there any physical ramifications or injuries because of any training you did?
Liam Neeson: "Well, lots of training when you know the fight’s coming up. Little [injuries], nothing serious."
Was the toughest fight scene the one in the apartment?
Liam Neeson: "That was a tough little fight because it was supposed to look scrappy and not too choreographed. The choreographer, who’s also a very dear friend of mine, Olivier Schneider, it’s like doing a wonderful ballet with him. We’ve worked very intensely before, so that induces an absolute confidence. When you’re confident, then you can start breathing normally and you don’t get as injured as much as you would with someone who’s stiff and a bit scared."
Can you talk about doing the underwater scene?
Liam Neeson: "It was very, very scary for me. I worked with Mark in a tank and a swimming pool to get used to it. I’m not a very strong swimmer; I came to water late. In fact, I learned to swim at the age of 20. But Mark is an amazing friend, and an amazing stuntman. There were lots of days we would meet in the swimming pool and I’d put my head six inches under, two inches under. When we shot the scene, it was half a cab, and Jaume wanted it to gradually sink into the heated tank, which was great. I’m sitting in the back and I felt confident enough. Mark was literally there with the mask, as I knew he would be, and I banged the window, I’m unconscious and just feeling the water coming up, knowing everybody’s there, and once it got to there I just panicked. We got out, which was easy enough. I wasn’t in control - that’s what it was about. Mark talked me through [it]. I basically took deep breaths and lowered myself into the seat, which was much, much easier to do."
Is the appeal of a film like this the literally hands-on aspect of the combat in the stunt sequences?
Liam Neeson: "Yeah, that’s partly an attraction. Again, I just go back to the script. That was our foundation and even time after time it was always exhilarating to read the script. Little bits you may have forgotten, or a little piece of stage direction that I usually ignore when I’m reading a script, but in this instance the stage direction was actually quite critical. It was like delving back into a great short novel again."
You were into boxing when you were younger. Does that help you now?
Liam Neeson: "I was an amateur boxer. Well, I guess in a deeper way. I was a kid when I boxed; I started when I was 9 and I finished when I was 17 or so, competitively. There’s just something about the discipline of going to a gym and hitting a heavy bag. It gives you a respect for hard work. That’s probably the bottom line of it. As well as keeping reasonably fit, it’s a discipline, and you have to apply that if you’re lucky enough to get films. That certainly applies. There’s a physical discipline of getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning and shooting until 7, 8 o’clock at night and going home and doing your workout or whatever it is, and eating and going to bed for two months, three months, four months. That training I did as a child, just the physical aspect, has certainly stood me in good stead in the motion picture business."
At this point in your career, how would you define - in a few words - your journey as an actor?
Liam Neeson: "Two words? Very lucky. Seriously."
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Unknown hits theaters on February 18, 2011 and is rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sexual content.
