Liam Neeson shows off his Clint Eastwood impression while reminiscing about filming The Dead Pool, a movie in the Dirty Harry franchise. Released in 1988, The Dead Pool marks Eastwood’s final outing as homicide detective Harry Callahan. The film, which is directed by Buddy Van Horn, follows Callahan as he investigates a contest revolving around killing celebrities, with Neeson playing director Peter Swan in the film.
During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Neeson relives filming a scene in The Dead Pool in which Callahan interrogates a suspect and delivers key information to the audience.
In the clip, Neeson recalls Eastwood giving feedback on a scene, and he even breaks out his impression of the iconic actor and director. Read his full recollection of the experience below or watch Neeson’s talk show appearance above:
“I was in his last Dirty Harry movie. I was a suspect, but I was okay. And Clint was very funny. I remember one day we were doing a scene with him, a lovely actor Evan Kim, and myself. And Clint has this stuff to say that the audience have to hear. ‘Okay, on Wednesday you were here, but on Thursday you were there.’ It was information we had to have as the audience.
“So he did this scene and turned to Jack, his camera operator. And Clint said all this stuff, two takes that was it. He said, [doing Eastwood impression] ‘Evan, good. Liam, fine. I was my usual adequate self. Let’s move on.’”
Is It Time For A Dirty Harry Reboot?
Why The Franchise May Be Best Left Alone
Eastwood may still be making movies at 93 years old (his supposedly final film, Juror #2, is expected out at some point this year), but he retired as Dirty Harry in 1988 with The Dead Pool. The first film in the franchise, which was released in 1971, remains one of Eastwood’s most iconic and most significant, even over 50 years later. While the franchise remained successful throughout its run, no reboot of Dirty Harry has yet made it to screens.
Eastwood rejected a possible Dirty Harry 6 due to his age, but Warner Bros. was rumored to have been eying Dwayne Johnson to take over a rebooted version of the franchise in the early 2000s. After Johnson starred in underperforming movies like Doom and Walking Tall, however, the idea is said to have fallen by the wayside. In an age when Hollywood is intent on mining old IP with a plethora of sequels and reboots, it’s surprising that a new Dirty Harry hasn’t made its way to screens yet.
One of the major problems facing a potential reboot, of course, is who would star in it. Eastwood’s performance as Callahan is truly iconic, and it would be a challenge for another actor to recapture the same combination of grit, gruffness, and charisma. While it would certainly be interesting to see another take on Dirty Harry make it to the screen, perhaps it’s best that the character remains retired after The Dead Pool.