Non-Stop action for Liam Neeson in his latest film role

Liam Neeson takes action films to a whole new level.

“I’m probably a better actor than I am a detective,” laughs Liam Neeson.

The assertion that he plumped for the right career comes from an experience on an aeroplane five years ago.

“As an actor I like observing people and I was sitting on an aeroplane on one occasion and, you know how it is, you’re bored and you just observe people.

“I was watching these two guys in particular so, after we landed I said, ‘Forgive me, but are you two air marshals?’ It turned out one of them was, although the other guy was a teacher! I was only 50% right.”

The story came to mind as Liam settled down to talk about Non-Stop, an action film which takes place entirely in the enclosed space of an airplane fuselage.

The Northern Irishman plays Bill Marks, a former New York Police Department officer who is working as an air marshal.

A short time into a routine flight to London, Marks receives a series of text messages supposedly from a passenger on the plane threatening to kill one passenger every 20 minutes unless $150 million is deposited into a secret account. And that’s not his only worry.

“Strangely, given his job, Bill suffers from a fear of flying,” expands Liam. “When we first meet him he’s trying to come to terms with the death of his child and he has hit the bottle pretty hard.

“He used to be in the New York Police Department, so working as an air marshal now is a bit of a demotion.

“But it’s also a last chance to prove himself as an officer of the law of sorts and, like it or not, he’s going to be tested to his limits.”

Best known for dramatic roles early on, Schindler’s List and Michael Collins in particular, Liam chose his sixth decade to make a transition to the leading man in action movies, starring in Taken, Unknown and The A-Team past his 50th birthday.

Now past his 60th birthday, does he feel it’s time for another transition?

“Yes, I’m getting a bit old for this,” laughs the star, referring to Danny Glover’s famous line in Lethal Weapon. “I had one fight scene with a guy in the airplane toilet, which was quite intense and, to add to the problem, the other guy was quite big too.

“He had to bash me up against a fake mirror that shatters. You’re not aware of being hurt at the time, because the adrenaline kicks in, but you do see a bruise or two later and think, ‘How did I get that?’

“But it’s all good fun and there are great stunt guys for the difficult stuff.”

Among the passengers and crew are Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Linus Roache (son of Coronation Street star William), and Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery.

“I haven’t seen Michelle’s show but I’ve been given the first two series to watch,” says Liam.

And having acted the part of an air marshal, would he now be any better at spotting one on a plane journey?

“No, I don’t think I could. They are very good at travelling incognito, of course, because it’s part of the job.

“I don’t know how many of them fly now with security at airports being so strict but I should imagine they’ve been cut down a lot since they first introduced them after September 11.”

Non-Stop is at cinemas now.