Pamela Anderson gushes over Liam Neeson in 'Naked Gun' reboot
The stars and creative team preview return of spoof comedy franchise
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NEW YORK CITY — As a longtime fan, Pamela Anderson couldn’t wait to meet her Naked Gun co-star Liam Neeson. But she admits she had to fight off a bit of stage fright before shooting began on the long-awaited comedy reboot.
“You’re always nervous to meet a bunch of new people,” Anderson, 58, told Postmedia at the New York City premiere of the updated spoof that casts Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., the son of police detective Frank Drebin (played by the late Leslie Nielsen). “Meeting Liam, I wanted to do a good job and I felt a little pressure.”
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But once the jokes began, the recent Last Showgirl star started to relax. “Then we just had fun,” she smiled.
The last time we spoke, Neeson, now 73, said that his transition to starring in action movies made him feel like a “kid in a candy store.”
Making juvenile jokes in a Naked Gun movie, he said Monday night outside the SVA Theatre with his sons Micheál and Daniel by his side, was no different. “I felt like a teenager in a candy store,” Neeson quipped.
Despite being spawned by a failed 1982 sitcom, the original Naked Gun was a runaway box office hit when it was released in December 1988. Its success generated two sequels — 1991’s The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear and 1994’s Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.
So Neeson knew he had big shoes to follow.
“It was an important franchise and it was funny,” said Neeson. “So it was important to honour the franchise, but at the same time create something new, which I think we did.”
Since filming wrapped, Anderson, who was joined by her sons Brandon and Dylan at the screening, has had nothing but praise for Neeson’s comedic turn.
“Liam is hysterical. Leslie Nielsen was a dramatic actor and then he did the Naked Gun franchise. Liam’s the same way. But Liam’s so funny. It was hard to keep a straight face. I was literally running into walls,” the Golden Globe nominee said.
Comedy was something the B.C. native had always wanted to try and as Beth Davenport, Frank Jr.’s sultry love interest, Anderson gets to check that box off her career list.
The Baywatch alum, who is rumoured to be dating Neeson (a source told PEOPLE the two are “smitten with each other”), said the film is going to show off a different side to her.
“There’s singing, it’s over-the-top and it’s funny,” she said. “It’s all about the laughs.”
The revamp is directed by Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer (Saturday Night Live, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) and produced by Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins.
The update follows Frank Jr. as he and members of the Los Angeles Police Squad try to solve the murder of a computer programmer. His investigation brings him into conflict with an evil tech billionaire (Danny Huston) who is looking to wipe out most of humanity.
The cast also includes Kevin Durand, CCH Pounder, Eddie Yu, WWE star Cody Rhodes, Busta Rhymes and Liza Koshy.
MacFarlane admitted on the red carpet that after he worked with Neeson on A Million Ways to Die in the West and Ted 2, he wanted to see the Oscar nominee try his hand at something really outrageous.
“He’s what every comedy writer wants in an actor. He trusts the material completely, plays it completely earnestly and he’s incredibly selfless,” MacFarlane said.
When David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams (collectively known as ZAZ) created Drebin for the short-lived Police Squad! before the first Naked Gun movie in 1988, they looked to cast a serious actor, setting their sights on Nielsen.
“When the Zucker brothers made Airplane! and the original Naked Gun, you had Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen; guys who were deadly serious actors who knew not to try and do the comedy,” MacFarlane said. “I think Liam Neeson is the only actor alive in 2025 who has that vibe.”
Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, who co-wrote the reboot with Schaffer, said the film only got greenlit when Neeson said he was interested in doing it.
“When Liam Neeson said he wanted to do the movie, that’s when this all became real,” Gregor said. “He’s built up that level of seriousness over 40-plus years of work and a 100-something movies and by some miracle he let us spend some capital on this.”
“He wanted to do it and he seemed to get it. He was a fan and he understood the assignment. He’s effortlessly funny,” Mand added.
Gregor and Mand also praised the chemistry between the two co-stars.
“Talk about hot,” Gregor joked. “Immediately there was a rapport between them. It was movie magic … Their love for one another is genuine and real and hopefully it comes across on screen.”
When it opens in cinemas this weekend, the creative team behind the remake isn’t just hoping to revive a nearly 30-year-old comedy franchise — they’re also betting they can convince audiences to come out to movie theatres again.
People “need to giggle” Neeson said, with MacFarlane adding that he has been wanting to make a new Naked Gun for over a decade.
“I had a few friends of mine take a stab at this and the best we could come up with was a cover-band version of the original,” he said. “But Akiva and his team managed to come up with a Naked Gun for 2025.”
The Naked Gun opens in theatres Friday, Aug. 1.
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