14 DAY TRIAL // Liam Neeson stepped out in New York over the weekend and the paparazzi snapped photos of him looking thinner than ever before, “gaunt” and “frail.” The moment the pics popped up online, speculation began on the actor’s health, so his publicist is forced to issue another denial.
He is not ill and there is nothing wrong with him, the rep says in a new statement, to TMZ. He is thinner, that much is true, but he’s healthy as a horse, as he’s always been.
You can see two of the photos in the gallery below.
Liam is fine, on a new diet
This is the second time that the actor’s publicist is making a stand on the photos, the first time being shortly after they were published online. The rep says that Liam is “healthy as ever” and stresses that the only reason he appears otherwise is that the photos of him are from an “unflattering” angle.
Apparently, Neeson “changed his diet and started doing more exercise about a year ago and credits that for the weight loss,” TMZ writes.
The publicist refuses to acknowledge the fact that the weight loss seems to have occurred within the past month, as the actor was spotted on a red carpet in June and he didn’t seem as thin as he appeared to be last weekend in New York.
Because of this, his assurances that Neeson is OK are doing little for the fans, who remain worried about his health. Some of them hope that the weight loss is for a new movie, but the publicist would have said that, had it been the case.
Liam Neeson, the unlikely action movie star
While Tom Cruise has been working since his 30s to build the reputation of one of Hollywood’s biggest action movie stars, for Liam Neeson, this came as a surprise, with the first “Taken” movie, in 2008.
The film has seen 2 sequels and paved the way for similar roles for Neeson, who was suddenly one of the most in-demand actors in their late 50s. His rise in popularity surprised everyone, including himself, as he would admit in a later interview: he never imagined he would make the transition to action movie star, let alone that audiences would embrace it with such enthusiasm.
Neeson’s aging action movie hero, first introduced in the aforementioned “Taken” film, also ushered in a new era in action movies, that of the older, wiser but still tough action hero.
