Liam Neeson Is Almost Done With Action Movies

After a long and varied movie career, Liam Neeson was in the second half of his 50s when 2008's Taken shifted his career toward action roles. Now, 16 years and more than a dozen movies in the genre later, he's ready to retire his "particular set of skills." "I'm 72—it has to stop at some stage," the Northern Irish actor tells People. "You can't fool audiences," he says, adding that he doesn't want longtime stunt double Mark Vanselow "to be fighting my fight scenes for me." He says he'll probably move on from action movies in 2025. "Maybe the end of next year. I think that's it," he says.

Neeson tells People that Taken "seemed to have touched something in the psychic nerve of moviegoing audiences." Neeson, who became a US citizen in 2009, was recently called for jury duty in New York, the Irish Star reports. He tells People that when it was his turn to be dismissed, the court clerk started reciting his famous "particular set of skills" monologue from Taken. "It was actually really sweet and flattering. As I was leaving, people started to applaud," he says. People notes that action movies were the "second act" of his career and comedy might be the third: He stars as Lt. Frank Drebin in the reboot of The Naked Gun, which recently wrapped filming. (More Liam Neeson stories.)