Liam Neeson, the star of hit action movies such as Taken and The A-Team, is no stranger to on-set stunts. However, sometimes accidents happen, and very real injuries occur. This was the case during the ‘90s movie Rob Roy, where Neeson’s co-star Tim Roth stabbed him with a sword while filming.
Directed by Michael Caton-Jones, Rob Roy is a historical drama movie, set in 1714 Scotland, that saw Neeson star as the titular character – who battles the evil nobleman Archibald Cunningham (Roth). In the thriller movie, there’s plenty of swordplay and duels between the actors, causing them to rehearse scenes with stunt doubles before shoots.
In an interview on the Overdue Rentals podcast, Roth reveals that during one moment in the movie, he was more rehearsed than Neeson, causing the two to be slightly out of sync and leading to Roth accidentally stabbing Neeson in the hand.
“I did stab Liam Neeson, actually… He was the lead in [Rob Roy], I had loads of time to practice, so I was working with his double,” Roth explained. “This amazing guy, that actually really looked like him as well. But I was working, rehearsing with his double a lot, so I had my moves down, but Liam was playing catch up with us.”
“So at one point, he went to parry a move that I did, and my sword went in-between his finger and up in [his hand.] It was like, ‘Oh my god, medic!’ And they’re blunt-ended swords, they were carefully crafted, made out of aluminium, I think,” he continued.
Roth revealed that in a surprise twist of fate, he was later stabbed in the same place during another movie after Rob Roy. So, it looks like the universe wasn’t best pleased by this Neeson accident and was looking for payback.
“Anyway, that was super painful, but I did get to stab Liam Neeson; and then shortly after, I was doing a crap movie, and got stabbed in the exact same place myself. So, karma,” he said.
Roth’s commitment to his role in Rob Roy is evident, along with going full out (enough to cause accidental injury) in fight scenes; he also was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Archibald Cunningham. Currently, Roth doesn’t have any new movies involving swords or Neeson in his schedule.