Liam Neeson wasn’t having any giggles at his expense during a visit to Late Night with Seth Meyers on Tuesday — at least not without firing back.
Early in the interview, host Seth Meyers asked Neeson to explain the plot of his upcoming film Cold Storage. Rather than improvise, Neeson reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a piece of paper with the official synopsis written on it.
He explained he didn’t want viewers at home hearing a rambling description that went nowhere.
“I don’t want anyone sitting there going, ‘Well, it’s about, um… these two…’” Neeson said.
Meyers jumped in to clarify that Neeson preferred to simply read the synopsis word for word. Neeson agreed and double-checked that he was allowed to do exactly that.
That’s when the studio audience started laughing — prompting Neeson to stop, look up, and deliver a deadpan response.
“Shut up!” he said, completely straight-faced.
The line sent the audience into even louder laughter, and Meyers cracked up as well. Neeson quickly smiled, making it clear the comment was all in good fun, before going ahead and reading the synopsis from the paper.
Meyers joked that the people who write official movie synopses must love it when an actor finally just reads what they wrote instead of dancing around it.
“I know,” Neeson replied, laughing along.
The playful exchange ended with Neeson finishing the synopsis — and proving once again that even when he’s pretending to scold a crowd, he’s still very much in on the joke.
The full moment can be seen in the video from the interview below: