It’s standard practice in the acting business for the younger generations to seek counsel from the elder statesmen they work with, even if Clint Eastwood wasn’t in the mood to lend assistance to Liam Neeson when he came knocking.
The four-time Academy Award-winning icon has probably forgotten more about acting and filmmaking than some people will ever learn, so it was entirely reasonable for the relatively fresh-faced Irishman to make a beeline towards one of the biggest stars in the business when he had his own ideas for how to add depth to a character and subsequently aid his performance.
It’s nowhere close to being the best movie he’s ever been in, nor is it anywhere near the upper echelons of its own franchise, but 1988’s fifth and final Dirty Harry flick, The Dead Pool, states a strong case for boasting the most unusual ensemble Eastwood has ever been a part of.
In addition to Neeson playing music video director Peter Swan, Jim Carrey delivered the first dramatic performance of his fledgling career as rock singer Johnny Squares, Charles Martinet – as in, the voice of Super Mario – is seen as a news reporter, and Slash fires a harpoon through a window as part of an uncredited outing for Guns N’ Roses.
Neeson was hardly a rookie at the time he worked on The Dead Pool, considering the actor was already 35 years old when cameras started rolling and he’d been in over a dozen features by that point, so he felt comfortable enough to take a trip to the leading man’s trailer in the hopes of refining their scenes together.
“I had two or three scenes with Mr Eastwood, and being very eager and keen before the first scene, I thought I’d go to his trailer and talk about my character and a couple of little changes I had and dialogue,” the late-stage action hero shared while collecting an ‘Outstanding Contribution to Cinema’ award from the Irish Film & Television Academy.
“I sat down with him, and he listened to my eager, earnest spiel about changing these lines,” Neeson continued. “So I finished, and he looked at me and said, ‘Interesting’, and kept me waiting. Then he said, ‘Well, the way I see it, Liam, you hit a few marks and say a few lines. What’s the problem?’”
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Neeson had decided to go straight to Eastwood, believing that a brief brainstorming session would lead to his role being bestowed with some self-created flourishes. Instead, he was basically told to do what it said in the script exactly the way it was written, with the star believing there was no justifiable reason why his co-star’s suggestions were worthy of being taken on board.
At least he tried, even if history has made it abundantly clear that Eastwood isn’t the kind of guy to suffer fools.