Nell star Liam Neeson has revealed the extent of his affection for his adopted home town of New York, feelings which have grown in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks. "I am proud to be a New Yorker," he declared in a recent interview with Britain's Daily Express. "I love it because there's nowhere else like it in the world. You can travel the world in Manhattan."
Liam, who shares a home in the city with his wife Natasha Richardson and their children, admits that, coming from Ireland, it took him a while to find another place where he felt at home. "When you don't have a family, wherever you lay down your suitcase, that's your home," he says. "Now I'm bringing up a family there with my wife, my children go to school there, and I'm just very happy to be there. I feel like a New Yorker."
And the terrorist attacks against the city have in no way diminuished his feelings. "I think my relationship with it has cemented since September 11... I was in London when it happened and I just had this overwhelming desire to get back."
His new-found contentment is especially heartfelt coming after a near-fatal motorbike accident two years ago. The injuries he sustained meant there were doubts as to whether he would ever be able to walk again. “When you go through something like that, it does make you think of your own mortality. It gives you…focus,” he says.
In his latest flick, K19: The Widowmaker, Liam, 50, plays Russian submarine captain Mikhail Polenin, a man faced with tough moral decisions when the nuclear vessel he is co-captaining gets into trouble. This latest big-budget venture, along with roles on other major Hollywood productions such as Star Wars - Attack Of The Clones, is a far cry from his infrequent appearances on British TV in the Eighties.
Next in the pipeline is a completely different genre. Liam is currently working on a romantic comedy from Four Weddings And A Funeral writer Richard Curtis, which will also star Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon. "Doing comedy is going to be a change," he says "I'll just have to go along and see what happens."
Photo: © Alphapress.com
