The former Jedi and star of Taken Liam Neeson plays private eye Matt Scudder in his latest thriller A Walk Among the Tombstones, based on the detective novels by Lawrence Block. The actor spoke about the demands of doing fight scenes in his sixties at a Q&A following a special screening of the film in London. He’s playing a tree in his next movie but don’t laugh, or he will “find you”.
A Walk Among the Tombstones is a cracking old school ’70s-style thriller. Is that one of the reasons why you took it on?
“Yeah, it reminded me of Sidney Lumet’s films (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon) and it’s the kind of film you don’t often see these days. The slow burn private eye thriller…”
Your character Scudder doesn’t just crack heads, he cracks cases…
“He’s not very good at cracking heads… He’s no one man army like Bryan Mills so it was nice to do a switch from films like Taken. Instead of beating on bad guys, they beat me up!”
How do you prepare for those fight scenes?
“I’ve worked with stunt coordinator Mark Answell for many years. We’ve done 16 films together now over 15 years. The first was Gun Shy with Sandra Bullock… We’ve become good friends. He falls through tables and off waterfalls so I don’t have to. We vary the choreography so we’re not repeating moves from previous films.”
How did the film develop?
“I met with director Scott Frank and already knew his work as a screenwriter (Get Shorty, Minority Report). It’s a very dark subject matter but he’s a very bubbly family man, the total opposite type of personality you would have expected to make a film about an ex-cop on the trail of serial-killing kidnappers. You’re expecting Tim Burton or something you know?”
What do you look for in a director?
“I want to know that he’s technically proficient and has a poetic soul. It’s a feel you gauge from someone’s work and the way they work with a crew that leads to a successful film.”
Samuel L. Jackson once said he’d earned the right not to be directed. How about you?
“That’s bullshit. You never reach that stage. We all need to be directed. You always need the outside eye. You might think you’re coming across one way but the director sees something else…”
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How did you develop the Matt Scudder character? Do you start with the Lawrence Block books?
“The screenplay is your bible, the foundation stone. I haven’t ready any Lawrence Block. There are 16 books based on this character. I started to read one but I put it down at page 60… I’ve been sidetracked by Nordic noir. Jo Nesbo and Henning Mankel are fantastic.”
Is this a character you might play again?
“It depends… If people pay the bucks to see the movie then the studio decides. It all boils down to dollars and cents.”
What inspiration did you take from other on screen tough guys to build your character?
“There’s a Sidney Lumet film called The Verdict starring Paul Newman where he raps on the bar with his knuckles… It was such a classic alcoholic barfly thing to do that you know the barman so well you don’t even speak anymore. I just stole it.”
Do you do that often?
“Oh yeah. Sometimes it works you know? That scene had no dialogue in a continuous shot so I wanted to do something to acknowledge the barman and keep on the move. I’ve made 62 films… You’re always stealing stuff!”
Where else do you go to find Scudder?
“Ultimately you trust the fact that the director and producers want you and what you can bring will be enough. All actors have an aura on screen. It’s yours. So I had to trust the fact that whatever aura I have as a performer on camera suited the characteristics of Scutter rather than trying to hard to ‘act’ it. I just had to be it.”
Can you assess your own aura?
“As painful as it is, especially in the early stages of my career, watching yourself on screen is agonising but you always learn something. Film is such an incredible medium. In my early days I tended to overact and pull faces… You have to keep cutting back from that.”
Which actors inspired you?
“Robert Mitchum and Lee Marvin had a history. They were men… Mitchum rode the freight trains at the height of the American depression and was in a chain gang at the age of 17. Marvin fought in Iwo Jima, where his comrades fell. He was lucky to get out with a leg wound and survive one of the most horrific battles of the Second World War. You can see it in their performances… At least I can. They have a life.”
Dan Stevens co-stars with you in this film. Are you a Downton Abbey fan?
“I’ve seen about three episodes but I have the boxset. There’s quite a few actually… The Sopranos, Breaking Bad… But I’m up to date with Game of Thrones!”
What was the toughest thing about shooting A Walk Among the Tombstones?
“It was a 10-week shoot with eight of those at night during a New York winter. You start to feel like a vampire – you’re getting up to go to work when everybody’s coming back… It plays tricks with you and causes havoc with your sleep.”
Were you reluctant to take in this role given that Scudder communicates with the bad guys via phone like your characters in Non-Stop and Taken?
“I had a knee-jerk reaction when I read the script and thought, ‘Here we go again!’ It didn’t last. It’s in the story but we tried to make sure that in the trailer it’s not coming across like a film about a telephone conversation. That would have been lazy marketing!”
How do you shoot the phone scenes? Is there actually someone on the end of the line?
“In this film David Harbour (who plays one of the kidnappers) was in the next room on a mic so I was acting with him. And in Taken Maggie Grace, who plays my daughter, was in the corner of the room when they shot me so I was performing to her. You have to do it.”
Where would you like to take Scudder next?
“There are many more cases for him to tackle but maybe we could look at the intensity of his struggles with alcohol and maybe a relationship develops… In the ‘Tombstones’ book he has a relationship with a call girl that isn’t in the film as it didn’t fit with our story.”
You’ve said that a TV series might be the way to go with this character. Is that something you would consider?
“Sure. HBO, Showtime, Netflix…. I think the best writing is being attracted to television because a writer can develop characters over many episodes compared to the challenge of a two-hour slot with a movie. There are no barriers now between film and television. It used to be that your agent would call you up and if it was TV you’d say, ‘Oh, terribly sorry…’ The small screen was distinct from the big screen but that doesn’t exist anymore.”
Would you do a comedy?
“As long as I’m the straight guy. If I try to be funny, I’m never funny. I’m going to do a little cameo in Ted 2.”
What’s next?
“I’m doing a movie based on the children’s book ‘A Monster Calls’ by Patrick Ness. There are very big emotional issues in the story and I play a tree. A yew tree. It’s all done in motion capture.”
How do you research a tree?
“I’m gonna find out! They’re gonna put me in a very sexy skin tight suit with green dots all over it as focus marks for the computer guys and they have a camera recording all your facial reactions. It’s a new thing for me. I have to be an intimidating tree. I’ve been a Jedi so why not a tree?”
A Walk Among the Tombstones is in cinemas September 19.