Liam Neeson is looking to take the box office crown from “The Lego Movie” this weekend as his latest action thriller, “Non-Stop,” opens on screens across the country. Joining him in the new film is Julianne Moore, and I recently had the opportunity to sit down with both of them to talk about the movie.
In “Non-Stop,” Neeson takes on the role of an air marshal with personal problems who finds himself onboard a flight which is threatened. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the movie clearly trades on post-9/11 fears and consequently that was the first thing I asked Neeson and Moore about. Moore told us that, “Film reflects what’s going on in the world, or in culture, so whatever has happened to us is going to show up in the movies we make.”
Moore also pointed out that in thrillers, you take something that “Makes a person anxious, scared in some way, you start with that kind of basic anxiety, and you exaggerate it.” Neeson added to Moore’s sentiment a truth about movies like this one, “The nature of sitting in a darkened room with a bunch of strangers, watching the same film, the same images… lessens the fear, collectively.”
Whether one focuses on the post-9/11 aspect of “Non-Stop” or the personal, individual, issues of all the passengers and crew in the movie, the film itself really very much is about fear, but that didn’t make the shoot a more intense one. In fact, when I asked the two actors about the shoot, they pointed out that they filmed quite near their homes and having so many people on set every day really gave it an “ensemble feel” and that the experience was an enjoyable one. Said Moore, “We had a great time, it was really comfortable.”
If only their characters felt the same way.
“Non-Stop” also stars Michelle Dockery, Corey Stoll, and Lupita Nyong’o. It opens in theaters this Friday, February 28th.