Sean Penn: shooting The Gunman doesn't make me a 'geri-action hero'

Sean Penn has denied suggestions he is moving into a Liam Neeson-style “geri-action hero” era after shooting upcoming geopolitical thriller The Gunman.

Penn’s shift towards action fare at the age of 54 has been compared to the Irish actor’s successful run of Taken movies. But the two-time Oscar winner said there were few comparisons to be made with Neeson’s career arc.

“I think Liam Neeson is fantastic. But he’s a 6-ft 4-in, melodically voiced, masculine figure who is a very good man who’s only there to take care of the people he loves,” Penn told the Associated Press ahead of the release of The Gunman in cinemas on Friday. “I am a 5-ft 9-in, highly conflicted man who’s principally taking care of himself.”

The Gunman is directed by Pierre Morel, director of the first Taken film, and features Penn as a former special forces soldier – Neeson’s Bryan Mills had a similar background in the Taken movies – so it’s perhaps little surprise that comparisons have been drawn. Nevertheless, Penn is having none of it. “I’m aware of the framing in the culture, but has nobody noticed Harrison Ford all of those years? There’ve been a lot of “geri-action” heroes,” he said, adding: “It’s not like all of a sudden I’m going to start running around in action movies all over the place.”

In The Gunman, Penn’s musclebound former sniper turned humanitarian worker must go on the run after discovering he is the target of a hit that may be related to an assassination he carried out eight years previously on an African political leader. Wanting nothing more than to reconnect with his longtime paramour, he sets out on a mission across Europe in an effort to find out who wants to kill him, a challenge complicated by the fact he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The film has received largely negative reviews from critics.

Neeson, 62, recently said he was planning to give up the action roles which have given him something of a career renaissance within the next two years. The three Taken movies have so far more than $890m at the global box office.