Marisa Tomei: I’ve admired Liam Neeson for a long time
Marisa Tomei has heaped praise on Liam Neeson, her Mongoose co-star.
Marisa Tomei has admired Liam Neeson for "a long time".
The 61-year-old actress stars alongside Liam, 74, in The Mongoose, the new action-thriller film, and Marisa admits that she's admired Liam for decades.
She told People: "I’ve admired him for a long time, and it seemed like it would be a film that was going to have a lot of action and fun packed in with a story that’s hard to tell in a lot of other genres.
"I think this was a really great way to tell this story of the trauma of war and what our American heroes go through, and then have it be extremely entertaining at the same time, and have this incredible actor at the centre of it."
Marisa admits that the opportunity to work with Liam was what drew her to the film.
The actress was also surprised by his sense of humour.
She said: "The whole kit and caboodle was really about Liam and the fun of working with him.
"Obviously, he’s a legend, but once you get to meet him and speak with him, he’s so funny. A lot of that humour does come through.
"The script is really well crafted to be an action movie as well as have that comedy in it, to have zingers."
Meanwhile, Marisa previously claimed that sexism is still prevalent in Hollywood.
The actress explained that sexism is more of an issue than ageism in the movie business.
Marisa told the Guardian newspaper in 2017: "I only got to be old very recently.
"The industry has decided I’m an aunt-type now. I’m like, is this the way it gets broken to me? But in any profession, there’s a lot of sexism.
"That isn’t exactly headline news. In our business, the numbers certainly don’t lie when you see how few speaking roles there are for women. It’s a numbers game and if you start adding in other factors, including age, the odds diminish of getting a great part."
Asked if that was a source of frustration, Marisa replied: "For sure, but frustration is the name of the game in acting. Every actor is frustrated, always worried they won’t get the next job. That’s true of any actor, of any gender, at any success level. And I’ve heard it from very, very successful actors.
"Sexism is part of the culture, that’s just a fact, but we can try to change that culture. I like to think things have improved in the century since we got the right to vote. But just because it’s 75 percent better, doesn’t mean you should stop caring about the remaining 25 percent."
