NEW YORK – There is a line from Welsh thespian Anthony Hopkins that Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson likes to share. Any time Neeson asks him how he is doing, Hopkins tells him: “Great. I haven’t been found out yet.”

At 73, Neeson feels like he has not been found out yet either.

Once dubbed the heir apparent to late Scottish movie star Sean Connery’s sweeping romantic grandeur, Neeson, with his broad trajectory and catalogue of more than 100 Hollywood films, is arguably as interesting as any actor today.

He can claim awards bait with Schindler’s List (1993) and Michael Collins (1996); franchise blockbusters with Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) and Batman Begins (2005); and fan favourites with Love Actually (2003) and The Lego Movie (2014).

And that is before you consider the long list of action film a**-kickers this Oscar- and Tony-nominated star has played, which established his identity for a generation of fans.

That is largely thanks to the surprising success of the Taken franchise (2008 to 2014), built around Neeson as a father with a very particular set of skills, who will find you and kill you if you kidnap his daughter.

It has been a career that has kept him and his viewers guessing what might come next.

“I’m honestly not trying to change,” he said of all the changes. “It wasn’t deliberate, but there’s been a lot of this for me.”

If you have not figured out why you cannot escape his face lately, it is part of his next change: He is starring in The Naked Gun, the reboot of the crime-spoof comedy franchise from the 1980s and 1990s.

Opening in Singapore cinemas on Aug 7, the film will serve as a test for whether Neeson’s brand of straight-man intensity can translate to the level of laughs produced by late Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen, his predecessor in the trilogy.

Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr – son of Nielsen&rsq...