Liam Neeson thinks Honest Abe may have been gay – well, he’s not ruling anything out. The evidence, in Liam’s mind, is flimsy at best. Liam Neeson is the star of the upcoming film Taken, directed by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), which is a thriller about a retired spy (Neeson), his wife (Famke Jensen) and their daughter (Maggie Grace), who is kidnapped by somebody with a lot of means. The trailer has just started airing on television, and the movie looks okay. According to Coming Soon, “a former spy (Neeson) sets out to find his kidnapped daughter in Paris at any cost. Relying on his special skills, he tracks down the ruthless gang that abducted her and launches a one-man war to bring them to justice and rescue his daughter.” Actually, it looks like something Liam did for the money, but still, he’s a good enough actor to play this kind of stuff.
He sat down with TimeOut Sydney to talk about Taken, and his role in Steven Speilberg’s Abraham Lincoln film, reported to be an adaptation of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, a story about Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his cabinet.
What attracted you to this role?
I liked the idea of making a thriller that had good pace and aimed high on an emotional level. Above all, we see Bryan [his character] as a father who idolises his daughter. But then, even though it’s never been a fantasy of mine to play an action hero, one gets a real kick out of shooting real movie baddies and driving like a racing car driver.What’s your process for choosing roles?
I’m always motivated by script. That’s my sole criterion and it’s either something that gets under my skin or it doesn’t, to be honest. And with this script I just loved the action of it. I loved the fact that I was being asked to do it. I was 54 years of age then and I thought in a few years’ time I’m never going to be asked to do this sort of stuff again.You had to undergo some pretty rigorous training for this role
I keep pretty fit, but I had to crank up the level and intensity of my training. I had to get together with a couple of guys in Paris and learn these different fight techniques known as parkour (a propulsive fighting style) which we had to keep doing for weeks because there was so many complex fighting sequences. Every time I saw my wife she thought I’d been beaten up literally, and of course I had. But Pierre wanted me to do as much of the action myself as I could for authenticity’s sake. He didn’t make me jump in front of a bus or off a bridge, but I think he thought about it.You start filming Abraham Lincoln next year with Steven Spielberg, what can you tell us?
Steven asked me to play him four years ago, so I’ve been spending the past three years researching him. He’s someone I admire. He believed in the destiny of democracy. That’s what drove him and so he’s an extraordinarily complex man, of course. These characters usually are; they’re not simple people.What about the speculation that Lincoln was gay?
I think the evidence is flimsy. That’s not to say that he wasn’t gay, but it’s not to say he was either.
[From TimeOutSydney]
It sort of breaks my heart seeing Liam Neeson promote a film that is in all probability, crap. But his turn as Abraham Lincoln will be amazing – it will be the first time he and Spielberg have worked together since Schindler’s List. There’s something about Liam’s voice, the way that he holds himself that seems … presidential. And as far as the whole is-he-or-isn’t-gay thing with Honest Abe… well, what’s a historical biopic without a little homoerotic tension?
Liam Neeson is shown on 9/24/08. Credit: PRPhotos
“well, what’s a historical biopic without a little homoerotic tension?”
teehee. I giggled out loud at that. 🙂
He’s got the perfect look to play Abe. Should be a good film.
That’s such a random speculation, gay or not gay, what does that have anything to do with his presidency or his pivotal role in U.S. history? lol
I think he’ll be great in the part.
That’s what the Log Cabin Republicans have based their name and platform on. The “flimsy evidence” Neeson refers to is the fact that Lincoln shared a bed with his cousin and wrote very tender (not romantic) letters to the relative he grew up almost as a brother to.
Personally I think it’s bunk. It doesn’t matter one way or the other, but trying to appropriate any public figure for a group’s personal gain based on a hope that it’s true is pretty shameful.
A book on Lincoln came out a few years ago and said Abe had a very close relationship with a man – they slept in the same bed – and even after both could afford single beds. And there were romantic letters between the two. Though the other version is Abe was poor in school and romantic letters were the way people behaved back in the day.
Wow, he really does have a Lincoln-like stature. Never thought about it until now.
Edit: I’m not digging the red hair, though.
I volenteer at a local musuem that was ran as a inn back in the 1890’s and as part of our training they talked about this–men/women sleeping in the same bed. The director of the musuem said you might rent a bed at the inn for the night and end up sleeping with someone you’ve never met and may never see again.
She also said when a married couple rented a bed for the night the wife and husband usually slept apart. the husband in the mens bedroom (with other men) and the wife in the womens bedroom (with other women).
I have since read more about the subject and Abe Lincoln was not gay, it was a custom of the times. Many people of the times never slept in a bed alone, they either shared with a brother, sister, cousin, room mate and then later in life your spouse.
Wouldn’t a more accurate title have been “Liam Neeson has no strong opinion on Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality”? Because his statement seems to boil down to “who knows?” or “anything’s possible.”
i’ve seen taken and it’s an awesome movie!!! seriously the worst part of it is maggie grace running like a lost 12 year old in almost every scene she is in. other than that it a real edge of the seat suspenseful kicking ass kind of movie!
The title is totally misleading, guys. Love ya, but seriously.
I don’t think Abe was gay. I read that back in the day, it would get really freaking cold during the night and people shared beds to keep warm and conserve space. Keep in mind, most boarding houses had few beds and wanted to make max amount of profits. So people had to share beds. and it wasn’t just 2 men on a bed, usually as many as 3 or 4 could fit. And i cant imagine Abe as an orgy type of guy…
Kaiser, I never in all my born days thought I’d hear that someone from Ballymena (hei) would be regarded as “Presidential” LOL (only joking, any Ballmena readers). But the Big Fella certainly does have presence and gravitas in spades.
As for Taken, I can’t say I’m very “taken” with the trailer – BUT Luc Besson did direct Léon and Nikita way back when, and I must say I love the first two Taxi films (with a super-young Marion Cotillard) that he produced, so perhaps it’ll be respectable enough.
With regard to the Abe Lincoln thing, someone obviously has no business dabbling in historical writing if their attempts at research was so limitied they didn’t come across people having to share beds pre-World War I.
The headline is “might have been gay” – might not, though. I was just trying to grab you, and it worked, didn’t it? Haha, suckers.
Mairead- I share a bed with my dog sometimes, doesn’t mean I’m into dogs. But for a while here in America, the Abe-gay speculation was rampant.
I know the plot sounds lame, but I’ve seen it and the movie is excellent, I highly reccomend it – it’s akin to Bourne Identity.
I enjoyed Taken, but I probably wouldn’t have as much if anyone else were in the role.
I`ve seen the film some months ago in Spain and it was a great film.
After watching the trailer I also thought that it was going to be bad, but it ended being a suspense packed film and really entertaining.
I highly recommend it!!
I share a bed with my dog sometimes, doesn’t mean I’m into dogs.
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I’d hope not, cuz that must mean I am as well because I always sneak him into bed when the boyfriend’s not around. lol (He hates the fur everywhere, but those puppy eyes! How can you say no?)
I’m so 100% with Katenonymous. “Liam Neeson answers reporter’s Q about Honest Abe’s sexuality vaguely”
The headline could just’ve easily been “Liam Neeson thinks ABe might not’ve been gay”
Well, when you’ve been named one of the laziest actors in Hollywood, you’ll say anything to jumpstart a nearly dead career.
dang! who’d of thought, little beard, big hat, couple of moles, Neeson has nailed it ! now if only they can resist the urge to cast Gwennie or Nicole as Mary Todd this might just be a heck of a show.
Whether or not the man was gay, which I’m not inclined to believe, the evidence people use to make the claim is just…forgive me…idiotic.
He was a terribly neglectful husband, but very enamored of his wife. By most accounts, when he DID take time from political life to spend any days at home with his wife, he was all over her.
MOST letters written in that day and age were penned in eloquent language, and men openly discussed their love and affection for one another because no homophobic stigma was ever assigned to men with affectionate friendships or family relations. They openly expressed themselves in writing because they could not openly express softer feelings with public actions. The whole “manly man” thing meant that you show strength and stoicism, but males of all ages were encouraged to communicate openly in letters of personal correspondence.
Letters from even the poorest of Civil War soldiers are incredibly expressive and romantic. It was a different time, and the culture was different. Abraham Lincoln could very well have been a gay man, but one could as easily claim that he had a foot fetish or a thing for farm animals, too. It’s a random speculation with no evidence whatsoever. Before you get all huffy, I am NOT comparing homosexuality to a fetish. I’m just saying that people’s sexual orientation, preferences, and pathology might be tittilating to discuss and speculate over…but there’s usually not much evidence for these kinds of private matters from that period.
Many random things could be true about any given person. I fail to see any compelling reason that a person would be inclined to label Lincoln as a gay man…except that, perhaps, today’s American men are so threatened by the animated affectionate language of that time that they think of nothing but homosexual trysts when they study the period. I mean, for God’s sake, sons don’t even want to hug their fathers or brothers anymore because they feel “gay” when they express physical affection for a man. It’s got to be crippling to be so bunched up.
/shrug
Anyway, my VERY long-winded point is that people who want to make Lincoln gay are going to have to get up earlier in the morning than “he slept next to another man sometimes” to prove their point.
Abraham Lincoln gay? WTF?! Surely you jest!
Ha! They addressed this rumour in series 2 of American Dad, an episode entitled “Lincoln Lover” about gay republicans. The song and dance number “We’re Red & we’re gay” was fab…
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