Liam Neeson Admits His Least Favorite 'Taken' Movie to Andy Cohen's Animated Irish Character

Liam Neeson, everyone's favorite stone-faced Irishman, is in the middle of a bizarre press tour for The Commuter, his new action film.

On Thursday, Neeson appeared on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, an after-hours talk show that began in 2009 as a way for Cohen to discuss episodes of Real Housewives. To interview the 65-year-old Irish actor, Cohen brought out an animated caricature of a leprechaun, apparently named Andy O'Cohen. (You can hear Taraji P. Henson half-heartedly murmur, "Oh, ha, Andy O'Cohen..." as the character slides onto the screen.)

Things got real, though, with the first question out of the cartoon's mouth. "Which of the three Taken movies was your least favorite?"

Neeson gaped at the screen for a few moments, his mouth stuck between a grimace and his near-permanent frown, then replied, "Uh, number two, I'd say."

For those of you not following along, Neeson filmed three Taken films from 2008 to 2014. His first, extremely meme-able outing as Bryan Mills, the guy with a very specific set of skills, finds Bryan tracking down his kidnapped teenage daughter, whom Albanian terrorists sold into sex slavery. The second time around, a bad guy from the first movie tries to kidnap Mills' family while they're on vacation. It doesn't go well. In the third film, Mills has been framed for his wife's murder, so he has to turn the tables and kidnap the bad guys, uh, back.

Oh, and in case you think all the Taken territory was covered in three movies, you'd be wrong! The franchise expanded into a prequel television series in 2017, in which Doctor Who's Clive Standen plays a younger version of Bryan Mills, presumably trying to save other kidnapped loved ones. Or maybe developing those mad skills he's so gravely proud of? We don't know; we haven't seen it.

Neeson's appearance on Cohen's show is the latest example of Neeson poking fun at his super-serious persona. And there are some pretty hilarious ones.

The funniest is Neeson's appearance on the British comedy Life's Too Short. He plays himself approaching Ricky Gervais and Warwick Davis (Willow) for advice on starting a new chapter in his acting career: improvisational comedy. The joke, of course, is that Neeson is one of the sternest actors in Hollywood, so all his attempts at comedy are pretty disturbing.

Neeson engaged in a similar joke in a 2016 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, when he played himself in an audition to play Santa Claus at a local mall. Nothing makes your blood run cold quite like Neeson grinning at the camera and saying in his gravelly voice, "I see you when you're sleeping."

Neeson's most recent action film, The Commuter, hits theaters today.