I spoke to Liam Neeson on Friday, January 12, ahead of the release of his latest movie, The Commuter. We touched on the movie, working alongside Killian Scott and his new year’s resolution, among other things.
One question, that particularly struck a chord with the actor was about the accusations in Hollywood.
With all the stories and allegations that are coming to light, I asked Liam what the atmosphere is like on set these days and whether or not it has changed.
His answer was lengthy and powerful, a completely opposite reaction to the one he gave Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show.
Ryan asked him about the #MeToo movement and viewers at home were quite shocked by his response. Where they expected an inspirational answer came a rather disappointing one. Liam appeared to brush it off and referred to it as “a bit of a witch hunt” and likened the accusations against Dustin Hoffman as “childhood stuff”.
He received major criticism for the interview.
It left me bewildered as to how two answers could be so different and jarring. This is what he has to say to me, when asked about the atmosphere on set following all the allegations:
“I haven’t experienced it myself, I’ll be honest, but I think someone described it earlier as a sea change… definitely a sea change is happening and I think it’s necessary.
It’s not just in my industry, it’s all over. Every industry is affected by this. As a goodwill UNICEF Ambassador, the statistics I’ve heard about female farm laborers, working in various countries, is staggering. Absolutely staggering of how they are being treated.
And I’m talking rapes, for a start. So there’s a woman’s movement and we as guys have to be a part of it. We just have to be. So, I think we’re going to live in very interesting times and something good and very positive is going to come out of it.
It has to, it has to change.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he gave his opinion on how we can overcome the gender pay gap. He was recently quoted saying that he wouldn’t take a pay cut, even though he found the situation disgraceful.
So, I asked him, if he (and men) aren’t willing to take a pay cut, what is the solution? Like the question on the Hollywood scandals, he gave a very powerful and impactful answer on how we need to tackle the issue and who he thinks is to blame.
Again, worlds apart from how he was portrayed on The Late Late Show.
Watch the interview in full here:
