Being an action star
"I don’t know really where the action tag has come from. Just look at the success of the film Taken...I thought it was going to be a straight-to-video release. That is actually one of the reasons I did it. I felt like three months in Paris, I'd get to do all this physical stuff that no one would think of me for, and that the film would go straight to video. Then Twentieth Century Fox picked it up and it became this big success. I was a tiny bit embarrassed by it, a tiny bit, but then people started sending me action scripts."

Getting older
"You should have seen me this morning! No, it is what it is. There is nothing you can do about it. You do think about your mortality more. Without getting heavy about it, you do think about mortality a lot more because you are a dad. That’s a concern to you. Anyway, I keep pretty fit."

Staying in shape
"I used to do all that, but now I have stopped. I gave that up a couple of years back. I gave up smoking and I am very pleased to have done that 17 years ago. I do still have a few habits. I love drinking wine."

His first real job
"Yes. I guess it was Excalibur in Ireland. I remember falling in love. I saw Helen Mirren 50 yards away dressed as Morgana Le Fay and it was like, 'Cool!'"

Getting Rihanna’s autograph on the set of Battleship
"It was for me! She is so cute. She is terrific in the film, too. Sadly I didn't get to work with her much directly on set but in my first scene I am making a speech to some 500 cadets on a battleship and Rihanna is in there. We had a holding area on the ship, a sort of green room, and she was in there with her little posse."

Don’t miss Liam Neeson in Battleship on DVD 9 August.