Liam Neeson has expressed concerns about the future of cinema, citing the growing number of films bypassing theatrical releases in favour of streaming platforms.
The 73-year-old Northern Irish actor, best known for his roles in Schindler’s List and Michael Collins, has enjoyed a career spanning nearly five decades.
While promoting his most recent film, Cold Storage, in which he plays grizzled bioterror operative Robert Quinn, Neeson said he is concerned about the state of Hollywood.
“The movie industry is changing, streaming services are merging, companies are being bought out,” Neeson told the Press Association.
“We’re all very concerned about the state of Hollywood. What’s going to happen to feature films?”
Reflecting on his long career, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for his role as Oskar Schindler, Neeson acknowledged the challenges of the acting profession.
“I’ve been very, very lucky,” he said. “I have friends and acquaintances, actors, some of whom haven’t worked for months and months. It’s a profession filled with rejection. It really is.
“You’re told, ‘You’re not right, you’re too Irish. Can you change your accent? Oh, you’re taller than I thought you were.’
“All this kind of criticism follows you throughout your career, certainly in the early days. I’ve been very, very lucky.”
Neeson, who recently starred in the action-comedy film The Naked Gun alongside Pamela Anderson and has three other films yet to be released, said he is eager to work with talented actors and directors.
“I’d love the chance to work with up-and-coming directors,” he said. “I may be a little out of touch, but there just seems to be incredible talent out there.”
He praised his Cold Storage co-stars Joe Keery and Georgina Campbell, noting their inspiring on-screen chemistry.
Neeson said: “I didn’t know Joe’s work, I may have seen a couple of early episodes of Stranger Things. Georgina, I didn’t know at all.
“They were just terrific to work with. They inspired me and gave me a sense of the pace my character should speak at.
“Most of my lines involve bioterror-related physics and chemistry, but working with Joe and Georgina on the first day… I loved them. Their chemistry was terrific and inspired how I delivered my performance.”
Directed by Jonny Campbell and written by David Koepp, Cold Storage follows the efforts to contain a parasitic fungus that escapes from an abandoned military base.
In the film, Keery and Campbell play Teacake and Naomi, two young employees of a self-storage company built on the old US military base who assist Quinn in preventing the fungus from triggering catastrophic extinction.
Cold Storage will be released in UK cinemas on Friday.
