Liam Neeson Wasn’t Allowed to Be Taller Than Clint Eastwood in the Only Film They Did Together
Actors Clint Eastwood and Liam Neeson are not only known for their contributions to cinema, but also for their heights. The two once stood well over 6 feet, but Neeson’s towering figure was shortened for the sake of a film.
Clint Eastwood and Liam Neeson both starred in ‘The Dead pool’
Neeson and Eastwood once teamed up in the 1988 film The Dead pool. The movie was the last feature in Eastwood’s iconic Dirty Harry series. Neeson played a horror director in the movie, which pitted Eastwood’s Harry Callahan tracking down a serial killer that targeted celebrities.
The character Neeson played was different than the action heroes audiences might be accustomed to seeing him as in Neeson’s movies. The director he portrays in the movie, whose name is Peter Swan, was instead a timid person by nature. He spent his time shouting at employees on set, occasionally firing them, and was shown having a bad attitude often. This depiction of a typical Hollywood director was a far cry away from the tough, no-nonsense vigilantes Neeson would be known for.
Liam Neeson wasn’t allowed to be taller than Clint Eastwood in the only film they did together
According to Celeb Heights, Neeson and Eastwood are both much taller than the average height. Most agree that Eastwood’s current height is 6 feet. At his peak, however, Eastwood was measured between 6 feet, -3 inches and 6 feet, -4 inches. Celeb Heights also lists Neeson’s height at 6 feet, -3 inches and some change. Although many believe that Neeson’s peak height was also 6 feet, -4 inches.
Occasionally, Neeson’s height has actually worked against the star’s ambitions as an actor. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the Star Wars star once listed his height as one of a few possible reasons he’s been rejected for roles. It was partially why Neeson once didn’t want his own children to follow in his footsteps as an actor.
“The profession is all about rejection, you know? You go out for this part and you’re rejected, and you’re not rejected because of your education, you’re rejected because of this,” Neeson said. “The space you occupy. You’re too tall. You’re too Irish. Your nose is too broken. You’re too this, you’re too that. So it’s –you want to save your kids from all that, you know?”
When Neeson worked with Eastwood, cinema tricks were used to make Eastwood look considerably taller than him.
“They actually put me down a couple of inches shorter than Clint,” Neeson said in a 1994 interview with Tampa Bay Times. “Where we were filmed side by side, he stood on curbs and the upside slopes of hills. Because he was the hero, I was made shorter. That galled me.”
The advice Clint Eastwood once gave Liam Neeson that the ‘Taken’ star still follows
Neeson once received sound advice from Eastwood on the set of The Dead Pool that has stayed with the actor throughout the years. The advice came when the Schindler’s List actor approached Eastwood about his own creative ideas for his Dead Pool character.
“I had 2 or 3 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,” Neeson once said at the IFTA.
But the conversation didn’t go the way Neeson might have expected. After visiting Eastwood in his trailer, Neeson explained the changes he might have liked to make with his Dead Pool character.
“I sat down with him and he listened to my eager, earnest spiel about changing these lines, I can’t remember. 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,’” Neeson recalled. “’What’s the problem?’”
Since then, Neeson quipped that was exactly what he’d been doing for the vast majority of his career. And it’s a process that has worked well for him so far.
