Liam Neeson Recalls Awkward Moment with Rob Reiner During His Failed “Princess Bride” Audition: 'Look of Disgust'
- - - Liam Neeson Recalls Awkward Moment with Rob Reiner During His Failed “Princess Bride” Audition: 'Look of Disgust'
Tommy McArdleJuly 10, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Karwai Tang/WireImage; Paul Archuleta/Getty
Liam Neeson on March 16, 2023; Rob Reiner on May 13, 2025
Liam Neeson revealed that filmmaker Rob Reiner was unhappy to discover the actor was not tall enough to play the giant Fezzik in the 1987 movie The Princess Bride
"[Reiner] turns to the casting director and said, 'I asked for a giant! What height are you?' '6 foot 4.' 'Ah, come on,' " Neeson recalled of the audition, when asked whether the anecdote was true
"It was a little embarrassing for the casting agent," the actor said
Liam Neeson is taller than the average man, but the actor's 6-foot-4 height was not tall enough for filmmaker Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride.
Neeson, 73, recently recalled auditioning for Reiner's iconic 1987 fantasy movie while he and his The Naked Gun costar Pamela Anderson spoke with Entertainment Weekly about true and false information about them circulated on the internet.
Neeson was asked to confirm whether an anecdote about his audition for The Princess Bride on IMDb's trivia page that claimed Reiner, now 78, holding "a look of disgust on his face when he realized that Neeson was 'only' 6-foot-4" during his audition to play the movie's giant, Fezzik.
"That's very true," Neeson said. "[Reiner] turns to the casting director and said, 'I asked for a giant! What height are you?' '6 foot 4.' 'Ah, come on.' "
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Wallace Shawn, Robin Wright and Andre the Giant in 1987's The Princess Bride
"That was it. No, 'Hello, thanks for coming,' " the actor added. "Nothing like that. It was a little embarrassing for the casting agent, I felt bad for her, I really did."
Neeson had been acting on screen for roughly nine years when he auditioned for The Princess Bride, an adaptation of author William Goldman's 1973 novel of the same name that follows a number of characters in a fictional land called Florin.
The late professional wrestler André René Roussimoff, better known as André the Giant, ultimately took the part in one of the few big screen roles he had during his acting career.
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Carlos Alvarez/Getty; 20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Liam Neeson on July 16, 2019; Andre the Giant in 'The Princess Bride'
Neeson previously told his tale of his short-lived audition for the movie during a 2020 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. "I didn't audition, but I was living in London, and I was asked to go meet Rob Reiner, the director, and I was quite nervous, because I knew this was a big film," he said at the time.
The actor continued, by adding, "I had entered the office in London, and Rob Reiner looked at me and said, 'He's not a giant! What height are you?' I said six foot-four. 'That's tall. He's not a giant!' "
"So there was no 'Hello, thank you,' " Neeson shared. Though he told Kimmel at the time that he once resolved to tell Reiner that "he was very rude" during that meeting, Neeson said he had long since "forgiven" the director.
on People
Source: AOL Entertainment
