“She’s really something else”: why Liam Neeson owes his entire career to Helen Mirren

The cream always rises to the top eventually, so while it might be unfair to say Liam Neeson wouldn’t have reached the position he did without Helen Mirren, he’d be the first to admit that she was instrumental in getting his foot in the door before he kicked it wide open.

Neeson made his film debut playing Jesus Christ of all people in 1978’s Pilgrim’s Progress, but it would be another three years before he returned to the big screen. When he did, he was being directed by Academy Award-nominated Deliverance director John Boorman in a blockbuster fantasy epic.

Backed by the might of Hollywood powerhouse Warner Bros, Excalibur sought to put a fresh cinematic spin on Arthurian legend, which it did manage to a certain extent. Earning an Oscar nod for ‘Best Cinematography’, it was a feast for the eyes that became a firm cult favourite despite falling short in the story and character department.

It was here that Neeson encountered Mirren for the first time, with the former playing King Arthur’s nephew and roundtable knight Gawain, while the latter smouldered as Morgana Le Fay. Sparks flew when the cameras weren’t rolling, too, with the pair striking up a romantic relationship.

The two ended up living together for five years, and it was even Mirren who gave Neeson his first driving lessons. However, it was professional courtesy she extended that gave him a huge boost in his fledging career, with the Excalibur co-stars’ union proving mutually beneficial to both.

At the time, Neeson didn’t even have an agent, but with Mirren having been working solidly as a professional actor since the mid-1960s, she was hardly short of a contact or two. Sorting him out with representation for the first time, the Irishman quickly began gaining prominent parts in movies like Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson’s The Bounty, sci-fi fantasy Krull, and World War I drama The Innocent.

They eventually went their separate ways, but the pair have remained incredibly close friends ever since, with Neeson unable to speak highly enough of her. “Helen is a remarkable woman, a remarkable actress,” he said of Mirren per Irish Examiner. “I should be so lucky and be honoured to have spent three or four years with that lady. She’s really something else.”

There was unspoken tension between the two, though, with Mirren admitting that it wasn’t always easy navigating a relationship when they were at different points in their careers. “It was difficult for him to be under my shadow,” she acknowledged. “I was well known, I had the money.”

Still, if it wasn’t for Mirren being well-known, then she wouldn’t have been able to set him up with an agent in the first place, something that’s worked out incredibly well for the veteran action hero more than 40 years on from Excalibur.