That Time Liam Neeson Got Fired From His Teaching Job for Punching a Knife-Wielding Student

(Skip to 1:40 for the bit in question.)

Class is pain 101. Your instructor’s Liam Neeson.

Don’t worry, though. As Neeson explains in the interview clip above, the teen pulled a knife on him over a simple disciplinary matter—probably whether or not the student was properly minding his surroundings—so the punch was pretty warranted despite its inevitable employment fallout. So if you ever see a Liam Neeson movie in which a fight scene breaks out between seemingly normal people in an unlikely mundane location, just remember that really happened to Neeson in real life before calling bullshit.

And he discusses that incident right after saying he’d never have expected to become an action star. “Yeah, I don’t mind bringing my fists to a knife fight. I’ll take those odds. What? An action hero? No, I’d never have considered it. Why?”

The Taken 2 interview is a few years old, but it resurfaced through Reddit’s TIL (Today I Learned) section, and really, is anyone surprised? Neeson has a very particular set of skills—have you seen the purposeful way he walks around Love Actually? It’s supposed to be a RomCom, but I fear for the safety of literally everyone else in a scene with him at all times. Even Darth Vader knows that Liam Neeson is to be feared and respected.

(via Death and Taxes)

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