Liam Neeson didn't set out to 'emulate' Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun

Liam Neeson didn't set out to "emulate" Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun.

The 73-year-old actor leads the cast of the comedy reboot as Frank Drebin Jr and was determined to avoid falling into the trap of mimicking the late actor – who played the character's father Detective Sergeant Frank Drebin in the original movies.

Liam told Empire magazine: "I wouldn't say nerve-wracking, but every day I would go up to Akiva (Schaffer, director) after we wrapped and say, 'How was it?' Because I just didn't know.

"I did not want to emulate the wonderful Leslie Nielsen, but the only thing I grabbed from him, was, 'Be serious. Don't try to be funny. Just stick to being a serious cop who is a bit of a doofus.'"

Schaffer explained that he wanted his picture to differ from the previous flicks.

The 47-year-old director said: "Liam's got his own things, but they're not Leslie Nielsen's things.

"It would also be unfair to Liam (to try to mimic Nielsen), because he'd be spending the whole movie trying to match something that is another human being with a whole different – forgive me – set of skills."