MICHEÁL RICHARDSON OPENS UP
MICHEÁL RICHARDSON OPENS UP ABOUT WORKING ON A NEW FILM WITH HIS DAD, LIAM NEESON, 11 YEARS AFTER LOSING HIS MUM, NATASHA RICHARDSON
Growing up in a family of famous actors doesn’t mean you don’t still get starstruck. Micheál Richardson, 25, the older son of Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson, recalls the very first time it happened to him. His father was playing Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in 1999 and brought him to the set. “I was just a toddler and saw R2-D2 and waddled right up to him and gave him a big hug,” recalls Richardson. “My dad says I wouldn’t let go.”
The young actor (whose Irish first name is pronounced Me-hall) will likely have fans of his own soon. He’s currently starring in the drama Made in Italy alongside Neeson, 68. The film, about a father and son bonding after the death of the family matriarch, is one that hits close to home for the two men. They have spent the past decade mourning their own loss: actress Natasha, Neeson’s wife and Richardson’s mother, who died at 45 in 2009 from an epidural hematoma after hitting her head while skiing in Quebec.
Richardson says that making the film in the Tuscan countryside with his father was a cathartic experience – one he hopes will help others coping with grief. “When you lose somebody so close to you, sometimes you just push it away and out of your head because the thought of them hurts,” he says, admitting that’s what he did in the years immediately following Natasha’s death. “But I found that’s an unhealthy thing to do. You have to remember them.”
Two years ago, Richardson decided to take his mother’s last name. “It was a way to honour her and her side of the family and carry on the name,” he says. He feels lucky to be able to watch her films –The Parent Trap is one of his favourites – but he treasures his own memories of her warm, boisterous personality the most. “I remember her laugh,” he says. “She had this amazing loud and hilarious ‘Ha!’ And how she welcomed me when I would come into the house after school. ‘Darling!’ she would say in her booming English accent.”
His renowned family – his maternal grandmother is Vanessa Redgrave, 83, and his aunt is actress Joely Richardson, 55 – inspired Richardson to explore his creativity at an early age. “We definitely had some pretty amazing people playing charades,” he says. “But it’s a beautiful group of people who are amazing and eccentric.” He points to Redgrave as a role model. “Nana’s got it going on,” he says. “I’ve been lucky enough to see her onstage and see how naturally she does it, especially Shakespeare. It’s like second nature to her.”
Born in Ireland and raised in New York, Richardson dabbled in theatre in high school and attended the Lee Strasberg Institute, but it wasn’t until about four years ago that he decided to get serious about acting. Last year he landed a small role in his dad’s thriller Cold Pursuit (which he auditioned for). Since filming Made in Italy he and Neeson have been quarantining in upstate New York (along with his younger brother Daniel, 23), and Micheál says he’s grateful for all the time he’s been able to spend with his father.
“Recently I’m seeing him as less of a dad and more as a close friend,” says Richardson. “A lot of people think he’s quite intimidating because he’s done all of these action thrillers, but he is just a big, lovable Irish bear. He’s a charmer. And hopefully, if I got anything from him, it’s a bit of charm.”
“I have a laid-back nature like my dad and a bubbly, social side like my mum”