Classic action films are renowned for their heart-pounding stunts, terrifying moments, and high-stakes situations. The possibility to live vicariously through these heroes who transcend the odds has audiences gripped to their seats as these suspenseful sequences play out. Some action performers earn every cent of their wages thanks to Hollywood heavy hitters making some serious bucks.

While many actors are eager to take on the stunts, some would rather leave those abilities to the professionals.

Liam Neeson
Actor Liam Neeson says he enjoys filming combat scenes but prefers to leave stunt work to the professionals.

Liam Neeson Doesn’t Perform His Own Stunts

Liam Neeson is renowned for his action-filled movies. He wants to take a punch, but he doesn’t actually undertake the stunts. Neeson collaborates with stuntman Mark Vanselow for his stunt sequences, and have collaborated 16 times.

Liam Neeson

He said:
“I don’t do my own stunts. I do my own fighting, which I don’t regard as a stunt, but as my dear friend and stunt, double Mark Vanselow does all my heavy-duty stuff. He has been doing so for about 12 years now.”

Liam Neeson

“I totally trust him,” he explained. “We’ve done many fight scenes together in various places all over the world with various stuntmen. Mark’s like a rock.”

To this, Vanselow said:
“Having worked together so often before, is a bit of a blessing and a curse. Every time we get together all we want to do is create something new… That’s fun and challenging so that it’s not the same piece of action all the time. We had some really interesting challenges from the director, Jaume Collet-Serra, as to how to make it interesting on a train.”

Why Does Tom Cruise Insist On Performing His Own Stunts?

Tom Cruise is renowned for pulling off a lot of his own stunts in his films. He is well known for his commitment to undertaking physically challenging and perilous action routines.

In the past 20 years, Cruise has built a reputation for pulling off life-threatening stunts in a number of his movies, most notably the Mission Impossible series. Cruise has scaled the largest structure in the world, dangled from helicopters, and clung to mountain faces hundreds of feet above the ground.

Tom Cruise

According to Cruise, his interest in daredevilry began as a child and persisted into adulthood, and completing his own stunts allowed him to delve deeper into those interests. On The Graham Norton Show in 2014, Cruise said he “always loved fast cars, motorcycles, hiking, and climbing,” adding that he enjoys the opportunity to do such things in his films as well.

Most of Cruise’s peers would never think to do stunt work given the danger associated with the dangers involved, but he enjoys them.