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In ‘Taken 2,’ Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent with a “particular set of skills” who stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) from kidnappers. When the father of one of the villains Bryan killed swears revenge, and takes Bryan and his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) hostage in Istanbul, Bryan enlists Kim to help them escape. Bryan then employs his unique tactics to get his family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers, one by one. From acclaimed filmmaker Luc Besson (who co-scripted and produces ’Taken 2′), co-screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen (who has penned both ‘Taken’ films with Besson), and director Olivier Megaton (Columbiana, Transporter 3), ’Taken 2′ follows the global success of ‘Taken,’ released in 2008, which earned $224 million at the box office.  ’Taken 2′ is out in cinemas now!

Can you tell us a little about the premise for ‘Taken 2’? After Kim’s kidnapping in the first movie, and Lenore’s separation from her new husband, it seems there may be a chance for Bryan and Lenore to reconcile?

Liam Neeson: Sure. Bryan finds himself in Istanbul, Turkey, looking after a Sheik. He’s looking after this Sheik’s security detail for three or four days. Then after, he invites his ex-wife and daughter, who’s on an Autumn break from school, to come over to Istanbul and see the sights, have a few days of rest and relaxation….and then, nasty things happen again (Laughs). The situation Bryan finds himself in is something any of us can relate to. If your child was threatened, you’d do anything to right that wrong. And with Lenore, their connection has suddenly become very strong because Lenore has been going through a hard time. Bryan is a shoulder for her to lean on, and the relationship grows and develops from there.

What was it like re-teaming with Liam Neeson for ‘Taken 2’? You share more screen with him for this sequel….

Maggie Grace: Yeah. ‘Taken 2,’ it’s the “don’t mess with Liam Neeson show” still, which is fantastic (laughs). And Liam, he’s a really really good man and very easy to work with. He’s very giving and he’s just a very soulful person, very easy to talk to. And also he has an incredibly twisted sense of humour – which I do too (laughs). It surprises me sometimes seeing him interact, he’s so calm and soft spoken at times, and then he has this great Irish sense of humour. That just makes life better on set. I’ve been very blessed to work with Liam Neeson, I’ve admired him for a long time as an actor. And I think the reason we had the success of the first film, ‘Taken,’ is largely due to the fact that Liam is just immensely empathetic and really has such a substance to him. He’s a man with a particular set of skills, come on, what’s not to love (laughs)?

What do you think it was about the original ‘Taken’ movie that people latched onto?

Liam Neeson: I think it was a wonderful, simple story. It was a little action-thriller that was about a father trying to find his daughter, who will stop at nothing. And I think audiences identified with that parental love in ‘Taken.’

Playing Bryan Mills in ‘Taken’ was somewhat of a departure for you at the time, this full-throttle action-thriller. Now with ’Taken 2,’ I can imagine you could have drew on the experience gleaned from roles in action films subsequent to ‘Taken’ that you’ve starred in?

Liam Neeson: Yeah. With Bryan Mills, I just really wanted to play what was written on the script, it appealed to the little boy in me (laughs). It was a chance to be in Paris for three months and to do fight training, and I love doing all of that physicality stuff, you know? It was terrific, it was a great release, getting to beat up bad guys (laughs). And when I acted in ’The A-Team’ I met a military weapons expert who is still operational. He was a big guy who, while we were shooting, would disappear for four days and come back with a stomach wound, and you knew he’d been on a mission in Iraq or Afghanistan. I mean, forget James Bond; this is the real deal. And he’s still doing it. He was a great source to draw on. That certainly helped for ‘Taken 2.’

How was it working with the stunt team on this particular film, ‘Taken 2′?

Liam Neeson: It’s great to do that stuff, and we had a terrific stunt team on ‘Taken 2.’ I have a wonderful stunt double, Mark Vanselow, who’s my buddy, and he’s been in my life, professionally, for 12 or 13 years. He does all the hard stuff (laughs)! Returning to Bryan Mills was a chance to get with Mark again and do all the fight training. And with Bryan, he’s a bit of a spy, a bit of a commando, there’s a lot there so it was fun to work on that.

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You‘re involved in a lot more action scenes as well this time around. Did you have a favourite scene to shoot on ‘Taken 2‘?

Maggie Grace: For stunts I’m totally onboard, it’s exciting for me! I’m trying to think….my favourite sequence when I first read the ‘Taken 2’ script was this amazing sequence with grenades, trying to pinpoint where Kim’s father is by using, more or less, sound. Kind of triangulating based on the information he does have, where their whereabouts are at that point. So that was an incredible sequence to shoot, we were mostly in the Bazarre for that shoot. ‘Taken 2,’ it’s unapologetically an action film, it’s kind of a cool Euro-thriller, action film. It has a real aesthetic and its own pace. It’s beautifully shot and it’s fun and it’s a ride, it doesn’t let up. There were a lot of fun scenes to shoot.

There‘s a moment in ‘Taken 2‘ where Bryan genuinely seems sick and tired of using his “particular set of skills“….

Liam Neeson: Yeah, definitely. Bryan, at this stage of his journey, he is genuinely sick of killing. He has physically become a machine when he gets into the mindset of taking out these bad guys. I think his big worry is that the machine may take over from the human being. For the sake of his daughter, his ex-wife and his own soul, he wants to stop.

I got a good few laughs out of Bryan’s overprotectiveness towards his daughter Kim in ‘Taken 2‘? How was that to play and work opposite Maggie Grace on?

Liam Neeson: Bryan’s too overprotective, you know? He sees red with the fact that his daughter’s got a boyfriend. He’s just livid, and he does a full security check on this kid. Which is crazy – too overprotective (laughs). But that bond is there of course, they absolutely love each to death as father and daughter. And it’s so easy to have that relationship with Maggie Grace, she’s a wonderful wonderful actress. She’s very warm, she’s easy to love, you know (laughs)?

How was filming on those rooftops in Istanbul? Shooting in a city and a particular area with so much history?

Maggie Grace: The moment of walking up on the roof for the first time as the crew was setting up the cameras, that was the good stuff. Just seeing all of this and being given carte blanche to see behind-the-scenes of this incredible city – and this Grand Bazarre that has burnt down and they’ve rebuilt it four times. It’s one of the largest and oldest markets in the world. Just the history of the place you’re standing on, and some of the steps are worn down like six inches because so many people have stepped on them. The sense of character and history, and the fact that we got to shoot there and have access to all of that – that was really incredible. And especially with the chase scenes in and on top of the Grande Bazarre on the rooftops. That was really special!

What was it like filming the car chase sequence?

Maggie Grace: I’ve never shot a car chase this way before, but it was really cool. Olivier Megaton was really hands, he more or less strapped himself to the side of the car. There’s these amazing things called top riders, where it looks like I’m driving – God help us all (laughs), but installed on top in a kind of cage, like a race car structure, is a real stunt driver, who’s amazing. So the camera can be inside the car if one of the actors gets out, or Olivier had a little tiny kind of swivel stool that attaches to either side of the car, normally on the passenger side. So that makes you feel like you’re really inside the car. That was fun.

What elements in ‘Taken 2’ drew you back to reprise the role of Bryan Mills?

Liam Neeson: I really like the character of Bryan Mills. I had a wonderful time with Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen and the other cast members on ‘Taken,’ and ‘Taken 2’ was a chance to get back together again after five years. I had so much fun doing the first movie, doing the fighting and action sequences. I think what makes ‘Taken’ and ‘Taken 2’ so relatable is the intensity of the love in the relationships, especially between father and daughter, and the daughter and the mother – then hopefully, in ‘Taken 12,’ the father and the ex-wife (laughs). They’re on their way.

Revenge, to a point, drives both ‘Taken’ and ‘Taken 2.’ In ‘Taken 2’ it’s the families of the men you killed in the first movie aiming to take revenge on you, they want their own brand of justice. 

Liam Neeson: Yeah. I think the revenge intentions are justified, in a way. I mean, the guys that my character disposed of in ‘Taken,’ they were nasty, horrible, sex slave traders. But, they had fathers, sons, brothers and uncles. So they lost loved ones, and I’m the one responsible for taking their lives. So yes, they feel revenge is the only way to bring dignity back to their village and their society.