Liam Neeson confirms ‘I’m retiring from ass-kicking before I need a walker’

Liam Neeson stunned fans when the 68-year-old casually mentioned he is retiring from action movies. His upcoming film will be one of his last.

Liam Neeson is Taken a permanent break from kicking bad guy butt.

Putting his menacing “I will find you and I will kill you” threats to bed, Neeson, 68, announced Thursday that he is taking his very particular set of skills and retiring from the action movie genre.

“I’m 68½ — 69 this year,” the Oscar nominee explained on Entertainment Tonight.

“There’s a couple more I’m going to do this year — hopefully, COVID allowing us — there’s a couple in the pipeline and then I think that will probably be it.”

“Well, unless I’m on a Zimmer frame or something,” Neeson added, joking he’d need a walker to continue.

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Actor Liam Neeson, 68. Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP

Over the years, the actor has built a solid repertoire around violently vanquishing villains, as he’s done in high-octane hits such as Taken, Non-Stop and forthcoming feature film The Marksman.

Facing off with drug cartel assassins as an ex-Marine-turned-defender of a young Mexican boy in The Marksman, set for release Friday, Neeson admitted he’ll miss the fisticuffs of thriller flicks.

“I love doing ’em,” he said. “I love beating up guys half my age.”

But Neeson recently realised the beatings were taking more of a toll on him while shooting his other upcoming blockbuster, Backlight.

“I’ve just finished [Backlight] in Australia and I had a fight scene with a kid — lovely, sweet actor called Taylor,” said the Northern Irishman.

“And halfway through the fight I looked up, I was breathless and it didn’t cost him a cent, and I said, ‘Taylor, what age are you?’ He said, ‘25.’ I said, ‘That’s the age of my eldest son!’”

Liam Neeson filming Backlight at Macedon. Picture: Supplied

The actor joked that while he loved “making ‘em”, he may need to step back from the action movies before he needs a walker. Picture: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

The star of The Dark Knight Rises previously denounced doing any more superhero movies — noting his disdain for having to “go into the gym for three hours every day to pump myself up to squeeze into a Velcro suit with a cape.”

Nonetheless, Neeson is honoured by fans’ demands that he reprise his role as Zeus from Clash of the Titans to star alongside Gal Gadot as her omnipotent father in Wonder Woman 3.

“I guess so, sure. I mean, I’m very flattered!,” the box-office boomer said, before revealing that he didn’t know Zeus is Wonder Woman’s dad.

“I wasn’t aware that the ancient Greek gods appeared in Wonder Woman. I have to say, much to my chagrin, I haven’t seen kind of the Wonder Woman movies.”

Once brought up to speed on comic book lore, Neeson said with a cheeky grin: “I’ll call my agent!”

This article originally appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced here with permission