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Liam Neeson was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel from his home in New York City. He told Jimmy he’d been in upstate New York prior to that. How do I say this? Liam, 68, looks his age. He has a patchy beard and those are always aging. He just looked tired and like any random old white guy. The last time we really talked about Liam was early 2019 when he was saying absolutely awful things about trying to hunt down random Black men for over a week in his youth because he wanted someone to pay for raping his friend when he found out, months after it happened. All Black men are the same to him. The fact that 1. he did that and 2. thought it was suitable story to tell and to defend, tells me everything I need to know about him. A couple of months after he told that story he did apologize, but it was way too late.

Liam told Jimmy that he has read over 30 books in lockdown including Ulysses and Crime and Punishment. He said he’s been reading physical books but he’s also reading on Kindle, which he likes because it’s backlit. After that he talked about taking computer science in college in the 70s and Jimmy and Liam bro’d out over fishing. Liam is promoting Honest Thief, which is out next week in the scant few theaters still open. Kate Walsh is in it as the love interest, and at least she’s age appropriate. She killed it in Umbrella Academy. Here’s more of what Liam told Jimmy. Both of these men are who we think they are.

He’s been reading a lot
I’ve actually read [about] 31 books… including James Joyce’s Ulysses and Crime and Punishment, which I had attempted to read like four or five times. It doesn’t help because every Russian character in the novel has three different names so that was a lot to get through.

I’m in my mid 60s, not to have read James Joyce as an Irishman, [it] changed the face of European literature, not to have read that I felt very guilty. Anybody who hasn’t read it before you should read it very fast because the whole book’s like a stream of consciousness.

His “cup of tea test” for scripts
I have my cup of tea test. If I open the script and start reading. If after page five or six I want to get up and make a cup of tea that’s not a good sign.

On how he almost auditioned for Andre The Giant’s part in Princess Bride
I didn’t audition but I was living in London and I was asked to go and meet Rob Reiner the director. I entered the office in London and Rob Reiner looked at me and said ‘he’s not a giant. What height are you?’ I said six foot four.

‘That’s tall, he’s not a giant.’ There was no hello, thank you. I thought ‘next time I see Rob Reiner I’m going to tell him he was very rude.’ He’s made Spinal Tap, he’s forgiven.

[From Jimmy Kimmel Live on YouTube]

Can you imagine if Liam casually mentioned that he’d read something that might help him, both image-wise and personal-growth wise, like The Autobiography of Malcom X, How to Be an Antiracist, White Fragility, etc? Instead he spent a lot of time reading an almost unfathomable (sorry Joyce fans and Irish people!) text because that’s what he cares about. He said he felt “guilty” not having read it before. You know if he read any social science books he would have mentioned it. It’s hard to see Liam Neeson interviews and not see him as a raging racist. No shade on reading though, it’s a good time to be reading. My mom told me she’s been reading a lot more in lockdown and she loves it. I’m still falling asleep watching YouTube. I need to get out of that habit.

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