Liam Neeson: ‘I've never been more nervous than when singing in front of Julie Andrews’

Hi Liam! How’s New York?

New York is, um … yeah, it’s coming in, let’s put it that way.

That’s quite noncommittal (1).

Yeah. Yeah, it’s coming in (2).

You narrate a new documentary about Manny Pacquiao. Do you think you’re similar, in that you’re both respected in your fields, but you’re reaching the age limit for your best-known work?

That’s a strange comparison. Manny’s, what, 34? I hope to be doing this when I’m 90, you know. If you think that 62 is way past the age of acting, then …

No, no (3)! I meant the action stuff.

Oh, the action stuff. Well, 60 is the new 40, so I’m not going to complain.

Can you relate to Manny?

I was a boxer as a kid, from the age of nine to about 17. But Manny was brought up in a fucking shack with rebels firing guns and stuff. He was facing death on a daily basis. And not having food to eat! That’s rock, rock bottom. What a foundation to build your future on; there’s nowhere to go but up. So, when he fights, beside his natural talent – which is phenomenal – you’ve got this fucking anger. But it’s a very controlled anger. He’s fighting not just for himself, but for all of the Philippines.

How were you as a boxer?

I was an amateur. I won a few titles. Looking back, I’d say I was competent.

Did you have a nickname or anything?

Nope. I wasn’t a knockout specialist. I had a good left jab and I just used that a lot. Not exactly a crowd-pleaser.

Have you seen any of Pacquiao’s acting roles (4)?

No I haven’t. I saw a sample of them on the documentary and it threw me a little bit. I thought, OK … maybe let’s save those for another day.

Have you ever had any projects like that, where you haven’t necessarily played to your strongest skills?

I did a movie once that nobody saw, called Duet For One. It was based on the life of Jacqueline du Pré, a cellist who suffered from multiple sclerosis. It was Julie Andrews, lovely Alan Bates, Max von Sydow and myself. Julie Andrews was playing Jacqueline du Pré. I played her sort of lover, a third-rate singer in a working men’s club. There’s a scene where I’m singing The Green, Green Grass of Home, and I’ve never been more nervous in all my life. Oh, my knees were shaking. Fuck me, I’m singing to Julie Andrews, you know? She can hold a tune.

That must be on YouTube, surely.

Oh God, it won’t be. Jesus, no, don’t look (5).

Back to Manny. The film doesn’t spend very long on his gambling or rumoured infidelities.

I know. But I think he more than hinted that he’d had a few flings. He obviously did. And his wife did, too, without saying it. We don’t need to know any more than that. This is a kid who grew up in the fucking jungle with nothing to eat. So, OK, it went to his head. He won all those world titles and he strayed a bit. He’s only human. I didn’t really want to see what his gambling debts may have been, you know? It’s powerful. You see him being vulnerable.

It ends on the biggest moment of vulnerability of all (6).

That fucking knockout. I remember watching that. I saw it on TV, I was on my own. I froze. I thought he was dead. I wondered if someone in the audience had shot him. He dropped like a tree. Fuck me, what a punch. Jesus wept.

Do you think he’ll ever retire?

I think he will. The doorman at my building is an ex-boxer and we’re always arguing. He says, “I think Manny’s got four more fights in him.” I say, “Four? Fuck me, he doesn’t have four more fights.” Maybe two. But I hope it’s just one and that’s it. He’s certainly fit enough for four, but that’s when he could get hurt. That’s the danger.

Last question. It seems like it’d be a waste if I had Liam Neeson on the phone and he didn’t threaten me …

Ugh, I can’t do that, mate. If I had 25 cents for every time I left a message on my son’s answer machine … No. No, I can’t do that (7).

• Manny is out on Blu-ray and DVD on 17th November, from Universal Pictures (UK)

Footnotes

1) This is code for: “I don’t know what that means.”

2) Nope, still no idea.

3) Imagine the most panicky voice in the world. Now triple it. Now triple it again. You’re still nowhere close to how I sounded at this point.

4) Genuinely including the superhero film Wapakman, the drama Brown Soup Thing and a sitcom called Show Me Da Manny that I promise really exists.

5) I did, and it is.

6) His sudden knockout at the hands of Juan Manuel Márquez in 2012.

7) To be fair, he did say this in a vaguely threatening way. It still counts.

• This article was amended on 14 November 2014 to correct the description of Jacqueline du Pré: she was a cellist, not a violinist.