On a recent episode of GQ’s Most Iconic Characters, Liam Neeson, who played Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, said that his death in the film was “a bit namby-pamby” and that he thought a Jedi master would fare better in a battle with a Sith lord.
“I thought my death was a bit namby-pamby,” he said. “I’m supposed to be a master Jedi. My character fell for the ‘Oh, I’m going for your face! No, I’m not, I’m going for your stomach.’ ‘Oh, you got me!’ Please, hardly a master Jedi.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Neeson said that on set, “Star Wars” mastermind George Lucas felt a bit awkward directing actors, and that he preferred to shape the film in the editing bay.
“George doesn’t like directing. Period. He told me that,” Neeson explained. “He’d finish a scene, he’d say, ‘Natalie, a little bit faster. Liam, a little bit faster there.’ [In the] editing suite afterwards, that’s when he starts enjoying the process. But actually directing actors and stuff, he told me he doesn’t like it.”
Neeson stars in The Naked Gun, in theaters now
