Cold Storage: Liam Neeson on his new sci-fi thriller and working with Stranger Things' Joe Keery

The 73-year-old Irish actor plays a bioterror operative in his latest outing that also stars Georgina Campbell and Lesley Manville

Liam Neeson in Cold Storage: 'I read from page one to the end in one sitting.'

There are few genres that Liam Neeson hasn’t explored in his nearly 50-year career in film and television. The 73-year-old Northern Irish actor has taken on a number of iconic roles, including Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List, a performance that earned him an Academy Award nomination and the title role in Michael Collins.

In his 50s, his career took an unexpected turn when he reinvented himself as an action star, leading films such as the Taken franchise, Unknown and Non-Stop.His latest film, Cold Storage, sees him play Robert Quinn, a grizzled bioterror operative tasked with containing a parasitic fungus leaking from an abandoned military base.

Directed by Jonny Campbell and written by David Koepp, the film also stars Stranger Things actor Joe Keery, Barbarian actress Georgina Campbell and Phantom Thread actress Lesley Manville.

Neeson said he was drawn to Koepp’s script, who also wrote Jurassic World: Rebirth and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

“I’ve been a huge admirer of David Koepp’s work for many years now. I’ve always admired his skill with screenplays,” says Neeson. “When I was sent it, I just found a real page-turner. That’s rare, certainly with me. I usually read five pages and think, ‘Oh, I’ll make a cup of tea,’ which is normally not a good sign.

“But for this one, I read from page one to the end in one sitting. It was terrific. It was a lovely amalgamation of different genres, too. There’s a lovely thread of comedy running through it.” 

Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell and Liam Neeson in Cold Storage.  

In the film, his co-stars Keery and Campbell play Teacake and Naomi, two young employees of a self-storage company built on the site of the old US military base.

The pair assist Quinn in containing the rapidly mutating menace and preventing the explosive extinction of humanity itself.

Neeson said he found Keery and Campbell’s on-screen chemistry inspiring.

“I didn’t know Joe’s work. I know he was on Stranger Things and I maybe saw a couple of those early episodes. But Georgina, I didn’t know at all,” he says.“I have to say, they were just terrific to work with. They actually 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, you know, but when working with Joe and Georgina on the first day… 

“I loved them. The chemistry they had between the two of them was terrific. For a start, they inspired me in how I should deliver my performance.” 

Neeson admits that he isn’t usually a horror fan but loved the balance of action and comedy in this film. “I think the fact that David Koepp has amalgamated two or three different genres works beautifully,” he says. 

“He keeps a real, lovely sense of humour running through it all, and yet it never lets up on the tension that builds over 24 hours with this contagious, mutating fungus on the loose."

He adds :“I saw a rough cut of the film maybe about a year and a half ago, with no special effects, and I was really taken with it. But when I saw the completed version last week, with all the special effects and everything added, I was really knocked out by it. I truly was.

“And I’m not a big horror fan at all, far from it. But this struck a lovely balance between edge-of-your-seat tension, to use the phrase, and humour. It was a really lovely balance.”

Joe Keery in Stranger Things. 

Keery, 33, thinks audiences who enjoyed Stranger Things will also enjoy Cold Storage. “For me personally, I just thought the character was such a great opportunity,” says the American actor. “Teacake is someone from a different walk of life than I’ve played before. I loved the dichotomy of this person whose exterior is one thing and whose inner life is something else entirely.”

Teacake, who has recently been released from prison, is in his role largely to keep his parole officer happy. “He is somebody who is very  impressionable and wants to make other people happy, which has led him down a couple of bad paths,” says Keery. “Maybe he’s not a very good decision maker. And maybe his judgment in his youth was a little flawed.” 

He adds: “Teacake is fascinated with Naomi because she’s so blunt and honest and invites that same level of honesty out of him. That’s different for him. There’s no posturing going on with her. And he’s not spent a lot of time around people like that. That’s an attractive, exciting quality in somebody.”

Liam Neeson, Sophie Bacon and Lesley Manville in Cold Storage. 

Campbell, 33, says her character Naomi is a great contrast to Teacake. A single mother, Naomi tries to balance her responsibilities with veterinary-school ambitions. 

“Naomi is someone who uses her words carefully, whereas he babbles,” says the British actress. “What I really love about the script is that she has a preconceived idea of who Teacake is by how he looks, his tattoos and his hair.

“At first, she thinks Teacake is a bit of an idiot, that she can manipulate him. But as they spend more time together, she realises that even though he has been to prison and has lived this shady life, he is very real, funny and caring, and has a genuine interest in her. She’s quite taken aback by who he really is too.

“What was lovely about this experience was that the original novel has a huge backstory of who Naomi is; where she’s from, what her family is like and what she was like at school.

“David is such a great writer and goes into such vivid detail, so to be able to talk to him was invaluable.”

•  Cold Storage is in cinemas from Friday, February 20