When taking on the NBC series Taken, Clive Standen stepped into the shoes of Bryan Mills, a role made famous by Liam Neeson in the 2009 thriller. The first season introduced the world to a much younger Bryan, showing his life before he got to the point where he was risking everything to save his daughter.
Standen stopped by Us Weekly’s suite during the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Tuesday, January 9, and delivered his favorite movie line. It just happened to be Neeson’s famous monologue from the movie: “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money, but what I do have is a particular set of skills. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you.”
Clive Standen and Liam NeesonPatrick Randak/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Sony Pictures Classics
As for season 2 of the NBC drama, Standen says he’s gotten attached. “It’s very easy to get an emotional connection to these stories because just like the films, he’s kicking down doors trying to save his daughter,” the actor, 36, told Us. “There’s a different daughter each week, whether it be a family or a person or a thing that he has to possess and save. It’s really exciting now because it’s gone back tot he actual formula of the movies.”
However, don’t expect the TV show to catch up with the films any time soon.
“Bryan in the movies was 60 – I’m half way there! That’s what’s so great about having a famous franchise and turning it into a TV show. In a film, it’s two hours long: a beginning, a middle and end. In a TV show, you can’t have an end. You want to think about doing 30 or 40 hours of drama,” the British star added. “You don’t want to deliver the finished product. And the finished product in this case, is a 60-year-old grizzled CIA veteran. There’s no rush to get there. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so I’ve got to think about building this character up episode after episode, until he becomes this man.”
Taken returns to NBC Friday, January 12, at 9 p.m. ET.
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