Ice road trucking drama The Ice Road is now out on Netflix. Liam Neeson leads the flick as Mike, an ice road driver trying to save trapped miners before time runs out. The cast also features Laurence Fishburne, Marcus Thomas, Amber Midthunder, and Benjamin Walker.
“After a remote diamond mine collapses in far northern Canada, a ‘big-rig’ ice road driver (Neeson) must lead an impossible rescue mission over a frozen ocean to save the trapped miners,” says the film’s official synopsis. “Contending with thawing waters and a massive storm, they discover the real threat is one they never saw coming.”
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ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to The Ice Road star Liam Neeson about his latest action flick, what prep he did, and if punching people in the face ever gets old (it doesn’t). Check out the video interview or the full transcript below.
Tyler Treese: I love hearing about preparation for these roles. What did you know about ice road trucking and what did you learn in order to prep for The Ice Road?
Liam Neeson: Prep-wise, I watched just a couple of the Ice Road Truckers, those reality TV shows, and just talking to a couple of truckers. One guy in particular, who took me out in the roads of Winnipeg, just let me get the feel of the truck. He was driving. I was just amazed at the size of these trucks and their sensitivity, gear changing, when to apply the brake, how gently to apply the brake, all that sort of stuff. They’re monsters. It’s like a stunt trying to climb into it, and it’s a stunt trying to climb out of it again. Now I know very little about cars. I know very little about trucks and I just was in awe of, of, of these beasts of machines. My grandfather, God rest him, used to be a steam engine driver in Ireland. It made me remember him coming into the train station in Waterford city and these huge big steam trains, big steam engines, and it just brought back lovely memories of him for me being on these trucks.
That’s amazing. And you got to work with Laurence Fishburne, which I’m sure was a real joy. How was it like finally getting to work with him?
Laurence is one of our great actors and I’ve seen him on stage too. He’s super. He’s one of the best. I was thrilled to hear he was going to take the part of Goldenrod, who sets up our mission and he’s just a terrific actor. I really loved being in his presence.
There are some really great action scenes and you’ve done so many great action films. Does it ever get old punching somebody in the face?
No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t. It doesn’t at all. I enjoy them. As long as the fights are kind of believable and it was interesting doing this one with Benjamin Walker, he plays Varnay. He’s an interesting character in the film. We had this fight on the ice as our truck is going away driverless down the ice road. We just tried to make it believable. He would slip, I would be slipping, I would get a grip. I would throw a punch. All that was quite intense and not at least too because Benjamin’s a hell of a lot younger than me.
