Neeson: I leave the stunts to the pros

Liam Neeson refuses to do his own stunts.

The ‘Unknown’ actor – who has previously been an amateur boxer – doesn’t like to stress himself out by doing dangerous routines for movies but does make sure to do his own fighting.

He said: “I don’t do my own stunts. I do my own fighting, which I don’t regard as a stunt, but as my dear friend and stunt double Mark Vanselow does all my heavy duty stuff. He has been doing so for about 12 years now.”

The Ballymena-born actor had to do an underwater scene in thriller ‘Unknown’, and he confesses he relied on Mark to do this harder work on the shots.

He said: “It was very, very scary for me and I worked with Mark in a tank—in fact, 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.

“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 I was just feeling the water coming up, knowing everybody’s there, but once it got to there I just panicked.

“So, we got out, which was easy enough, [but it was] because I wasn’t in control; that’s what it was about. So, anyway, Mark talked me through it. I basically took deep breaths and lowered myself in the seat, which was much, much easier to do.”