Liam Neeson Shares Less-Than-Enthused Reaction To The View Host Joy Behar's 'Embarrassing' Flirting

The ladies on The View rarely seem to let anything stop them from voicing their opinions, even when their musings come at the risk of boos from the audience or being sprayed down by their fellow co-hosts. However, it’s not as frequent that those vocalized opinions leave their guests as uncomfortable as Liam Neeson clearly was during his recent visit. The action film star has since shared his own views — and they’re less than complimentary — about the “embarrassing” interview, in which Joy Behar’s longtime crush on the actor overshadowed all other topics.

Liam Neeson dropped by the Emmy-winning ABC talk show on February 15 to promote his new movie Marlowe. What he got was a different experience altogether, as Joy Behar’s crush on the actor was quickly revealed, leading to some awkward silences from the overwhelmed co-host and jabs from her colleagues like, “Joy wants to get ‘Taken’ by you.” The star of stage and screen opened up to Rolling Stone about how uncomfortable he was, after looking forward to discussing real issues with the panel. He recalled: 

I was in the dressing room drinking a cup of tea, turned the TV up, and I thought, oh, this will be great. They’re talking about gun violence in America, and I agree that it’s an American problem. I go onstage and join the ladies during the break, and I was congratulating them on this discussion. And then our segment starts and it’s just all this BS with Joy [Behar] and Liam Neeson and having a crush, and I’ve known Whoopi for years and Joy a little bit, but I just wasn’t impressed. I’m uncomfortable in those situations, you know?

It certainly must have been disappointing for Liam Neeson to think he was going to be able to engage in some debate about important issues like gun violence, only to have the entire interview revolve around Joy Behar’s crush. The Love Actually actor said he did, however, get to have that conversation, albeit off the air. Neeson continued: 

One of the ladies [Sunny Hostin] is a prosecutor and we had a little chat afterward and it was a good, intelligent conversation, but then the segment’s all about this — oof —thirteen, fourteen-year-old crush. It’s just a bit embarrassing.

Embarrassing for Liam Neeson or Joy Behar? Sounds like both! When the actor joined the co-hosts on stage, they briefly discussed his new movie, Marlowe — which made around $2 million in its opening weekend at the box office — before Joy Behar turned the topic back to her crush. The shift garnered some eye-rolling from Liam Neeson, as the ladies discussed the Valentine’s Day cards he’d gifted each of them and asked him to draw hearts on them.  

HOW TO WATCH

The View airs at 11 a.m. ET weekdays on ABC, with episodes available for streaming with a Hulu subscription

Joy Behar then turned the focus back to Neeson’s career, but again, the conversation was quickly hijacked when the ladies continued to mention just how often Behar has spoken about the actor on The View over the years. Sunny Hostin even introduced a cringe-worthy montage that showed Behar talking about being aroused by the Taken movies and saying multiple times to “sprinkle my ashes over Liam Neeson.” You can see the full interview that made the famed actor so uncomfortable below: 

You can definitely see from Liam Neeson’s body language in that clip that he was not happy about the way that interview went down. What was probably such a big moment for Joy Behar may not be the happiest memory for The View co-host after all. I wonder if there’s somewhere else she wants her ashes scattered now? Perhaps she'll provide an update on a future broadcast.

Heidi Venable
Content Producer

Heidi Venable is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend, a mom of two and a hard-core '90s kid. She started freelancing for CinemaBlend in 2020 and officially came on board in 2021. Her job entails writing news stories and TV reactions from some of her favorite prime-time shows like Grey's Anatomy and The Bachelor. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a degree in Journalism and worked in the newspaper industry for almost two decades in multiple roles including Sports Editor, Page Designer and Online Editor. Unprovoked, will quote Friends in any situation. Thrives on New Orleans Saints football, The West Wing and taco trucks.