For two decades, he's been the quintessential grizzled action star... but Liam Neeson recently admitted he drives like a grandma.
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The 74-year-old Taken icon confessed the tidbit on the red carpet of his latest action film, The Mongoose. The flick, directed by Neeson's longtime stunt double Mark Vanselow, hinges on car chase sequences led by Neeson's character, Ryan "Fang" Flanagan.
However, the Batman Begins actor says he's "just not into cars." Indeed, the action star's driving record is probably spotless.
"When I'm in my car and I'm on a highway, maximum speed, I get up to maybe 58 miles an hour," he told PEOPLE while on the red carpet alongside Vanselow. "I know nothing about cars. I have no interest in cars."
Neeson then seemed to go full tilt with his gleeful automobile ignorance, apparently admitting he doesn't even know the model he drives.
"I drive a black one in real life," he said.
Hey, at least he remembered the color!
Liam Neeson Left the Stunt Driving to the Pros in His Latest Action Film
For The Mongoose, the veteran action star said he left the high-speed driving to the pros.
"I did some myself, but it was kind of a cheat. Certainly not at speed," Neeson told PEOPLE. "And there were some dramatic scenes, dramatic for me too, and nerve-wracking for me too, even though I knew the stunt driver was superb. As I say, I'm not a car person. I'm not comfortable."
You can almost imagine thousands of action film fans crying out into the abyss as they read Neeson's words. Still, there are always old-school Hollywood stars who really loved cars, like Steve McQueen and Paul Newman...
Regardless, a gracious Neeson went on to praise Mark Vanselow for his film stunt expertise and directing chops.
"Mark and I, this is our 30th project together," the Cold Storage actor added. "He's done my fight choreography in many films, stand-in, stunt double stuff. I totally trusted Mark with all these driving sequences. It wasn't him; we had these wonderful stunt drivers."
However, Vanselow took up for Neeson a bit, describing sequences where the actor pretended to drive a speeding car as a stuntman operated it from the roof of the vehicle.
"Imagine driving down a freeway, bobbing and weaving in and out of cars where you have no control over the car, and you're inside," he explained. "That's what Liam has to do a lot of the time while he's acting, while there's a camera in his face."
"That's frightening because you think, 'Oh, I hope the car stops here.' It does ultimately, but you never really know till it stops," the director added.
The Mongoose speeds into theaters on Oct. 30.
