Liam Neeson tells Dame Helen Mirren how he fell in love with her

A little know fact, perhaps, but acting legends Liam Neeson and Dame Helen Mirren used to date.

The pair lived together in the early 1980s, having met while both working on 1981’s Excalibur, directed by John Boorman. Mirren played the powerful enchantress Morgana Le Fay, while Neeson had a small role as Sir Gawain.

While reunited on the Graham Norton Show, about 35 years after they first met, Neeson decided to recount the moment he first fell for Mirren.

“I remember being on the set and standing with [co-star] Ciarán Hinds as Helen walked towards us dressed in her full Morgana Le Fey costume and we both went, ‘Oh f*ck,’” Neeson recalled. “I was smitten. I think Ciarán was too, but I was very smitten!”

An anecdote which was apparently news to Mirren herself, who responded: “I never knew that. You’ve never told me that before. It’s amazing.”

Neeson also told the story about he figured out Mirren felt the same about him. “Before I met her and we worked together, I had read somewhere that if she fancied a guy she would imitate his walk behind his back, and I turned around one day and she was doing that to me,” he explained.

As Mirren pointed out, the pair lived together for four years. “We were a serious item for a while. Lucky me!” she said.

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