Martin Scorsese's Silence: First image of Liam Neeson appears online showing actor's 20-pound weight loss

He told the press: 'Martin requires this level of dedication and I think it pays off'

Filming on Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film Silence - his first since the infamous Leonardo DiCaprio starring The Wolf of Wall Street - finished in May earlier this year.

Since then, only two official images have been released: the first of which showed Andrew Garfield knocking heads with Shinya Tsukamoto.

Now, thanks to the powers that be, the first image of Liam Neeson’s Father Cristóvão Ferreira has become available, illustrating the actors 20-pound weight loss for the film.


 Neeson in Silence

“Martin requires this level of dedication and I think it pays off,” the 63-year-old said while referring to his weight loss at the Los Cabos Film Festival, according to Collider.

“Martin wanted us all to look a bit more gaunt, which Adam [Diver] and Andrew did as well. I know Adam went to the extreme. He’s an ex-marine and when he’s given an order, he follows it through. He was like something out of Auschwitz.

Speaking about being on set, Neeson revealed how the director can be “intimidating.”

“He’s legendary — so as a performer you have to get over that. I had to get over that… He requires absolute silence on set, like everybody has to stop work when he’s giving a direction or explaining a scene. I mean everybody — the guy that’s painting 400 yards away has to stop. If he hears one tiny sound, it’s shattered for him so he commands that respect. He commands that silence and especially for this film it was necessary.”

Production took off to a shaky start as Taipei was hit with a 6.1 earthquake that left Neeson terrified in his 15th-floor hotel room: “It was terrifying. The world started to shake.”

The actor walked all the way down to the ground floor before realising the frequent tremors don’t affect the local residents at all.

Silence will hit cinemas in 2016.