Ballymena native Liam Neeson, who has reinvented himself as an action adventure hero in movies such as “Taken” and “The Grey”, spoke to Matt Lauer on “The Today Show” promoting his newest movie “Battleship”.

Recently the massively successful popstar Rihanna admitted that she had a huge crush on Neeson and spoke fondly of the Irishman. She said the veteran actor made her first appearance on the big screen an  easier transition. She said “He was cracking jokes and pulling faces and that just really relaxed me into it.”

Speaking to Lauer on Monday Neeson joked “She got my check."  He bashfully continued “She's a very, very talented, beautiful young girl.... She's the real deal.”

Neeson also spoke  about turn 60 this year. Neeson admitted that he wasn’t thrilled the topic had come up in the interview. He jested “Just rub it in!” He said his big birthday (coming soon, 7th June) does bother him.

He said "I think when I'm 60 and a day it'll be all right. Just getting through it. My kids want me to have a party, and some friends want to have a party, and I'm saying look, I think I'll just stay home, watch TV, open a bottle of wine."

Here’s the video of the interview:

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