Few actors have achieved such a prolific and chameleonic career as Liam Neeson’s. And, in turn, very few have been able to fit into a role as well as he did as an action hero. Now, the Brit returns to the fray in his 70s with “The Memory of a Murderer”, where he once again plays the role of hitman who must stop the bad guys. But, this time, his age plays a decisive role. The protagonist suffers from dementia and the constant loss of memory plays tricks on him.
The film, directed by Martin Campbell (“Casino Royale”) is about to be released in Spanish cinemas. And at eCartelera we had the opportunity to talk a bit with its lead actor, who gave us the keys that differentiate ‘The Memory of a Murderer’ from the rest of his action filmography. “I thought it was very original to have a legendary killer suffering from this degenerative mental illness”Neeson notes the source material for this remake, the 2003 Belgian film with which he shares the title, “this gave me a lot of material to investigate”.
In fact, the veteran actor wanted to take this depiction of dementia particularly seriously. “I wanted to be subtle with this terrible disease, not overdo it because it would be offensive to patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s”he assures, also confessing that in order to be trained on the subject he had to read “some books” and see “various documentaries”. All of this served to include physical characteristics in the character, working closely with Campbell himself to adapt them to the film.
Not even COVID can with Liam Neeson
During the interview, the Oscar winner took the time to tell a little anecdote. The film was shot in the midst of a pandemic, so the coronavirus did its homework on a trip the week before filming began. Neeson went to Europe to record a cameo in the “Derry Girls” series. “They took two tests before they left New York and I was negative. I arrived in London, they did another one and it was a false positive.”he says relieved because everything will be a scare.
“The memory of a murderer” comes out in theaters on July 22.
Source: E Cartelera
