Big Sword Energy: Liam Neeson and Helen Mirren Were The Pete & Ariana Of Their Day

Hear ye, gentle souls! Do you hear something rumbling in the world of streaming? It might just be the ferocious thunder coming from the classic epic Excalibur, which is now streaming on Prime Video. I re-watched the film for the first time in 15 years over the weekend and let me tell you, Excalibur is wild. There’s dragon’s breath and Gabriel Byrne goes to war to have sex with another man’s wife and Merlin wears a weird silver cap and naked Lancelot stabs himself and Patrick Stewart shows up to hail the boy king. Basically, Excalibur is a movie and a half.

But the best thing about Excalibur isn’t what’s happening onscreen, but what was going on off-screen. During filming, star Helen Mirren met and fell in love with a strapping young Irish actor making his big movie debut. His name? Liam Neeson. The two went on to live together for four years. They were a truly scintillating couple and I believe would have been the Pete and Ariana of their day if twitter had existed in the early 1980s. (Or at the very least, they would have been the Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult of their day, if you dig.)

Mirren plays Morgana in the film, King Arthur’s estranged half-sister. She returns to court on the day of Arthur’s wedding and corners Merlin, begging him to help her learn more about magic. Mirren plays Morgana like a vamp, only she’s lusting for control. She practically floats through the film like a goth dream. Her costumes look more like fetish wear than medieval garb. As soon as she entered the film, I purred out loud, “Yessss….” Neeson revealed on The Graham Norton Show that the first time he saw Mirren she was in her Morgana costume and he said, “Fuck.” Indeed.

Neeson is Sir Gawain, but he doesn’t get to fight a Green Knight in the film. Instead, he’s Morgana’s lover, which means he’s her toy. All we see him really do is simmer in rage. Eventually, he explodes at the Round Table and accuses Lancelot and Guinevere of having an affair. This leads to a dangerous duel between the knights over the purity of the queen’s soul. It’s hot and messy and nonsensical. I loved it.

However, it seems that we were supposed to see more of good Sir Gawain. In fact, Mirren and Neeson were supposed to be in a love scene in Excalibur. They shot the sex scene — and we have photos of it — but it was cut from the final version. Neeson and Mirren actually kind of bragged about it in that same Graham Norton episode. Neeson cheerfully remembered his full-set of armor and the real-life eagle who was in the scene to watch them go at it, while Mirren joked they should put the scene back in. “It would be like historic now!” Mirren says.

Excalibur is worth a watch for its mythic storytelling, theatrical costumes, and loud sensuality, but it would be even better if we could see young lovebirds Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson getting it on. I mean, c’mon. They want us to see it, too.

Watch Excalibur on Prime Video