Liam Neeson and the late Natasha Richardson’s son, Micheál Richardson, is following in their footsteps.
The 25-year-old Richardson stars in his first leading role in Big Dogs, a crime drama dropping Wednesday on Tubi and Amazon Prime Video, and only 360aproko has the exclusive sneak peek at the new eight-episode streaming series.
Big Dogs is set in a New York City besieged by financial collapse and a surging crime wave, while an underworld economy of speakeasies — illegal, debaucherous after-hours clubs linked by a web of taxicabs — is thriving. To earn extra cash, fashion photographer Renny (Richardson) has been moving party drugs through the taxi network for his boss, Reza (Tony Naumovski), the local front man for an international crime syndicate looking to take over the city. When Renny is forced by Reza to step up his game as a dealer to a dangerous degree, he soon finds himself in the crosshairs.
In 360aproko’s exclusive first look, Renny visits his mother, who has Alzheimer’s, and the reality of his situation — and possibly the driving force behind why he’s moonlighting in illegal activities — begins to set in.
“Ma, neighborhood really looks rough, please let me help you move out,” Renny implores in the clip.
“Absolutely not. This is my house, my home. This is where you grew up. How could I leave here?” his mom replies, prompting him to state matter-of-factly, “It’s not safe.”
“Enough,” she says, changing the subject to something a little less stressful. “It’s so long since I’ve seen you. Tell me all your big news. How are things?”
“Things have never been better. Big new job…,” Renny says, causing her to reminisce about what his father would think of his successes. “Your father would be so proud.”
But Renny gets a tiny bit sadder when his mother’s Alzheimer’s peeks through as she turns around moments later, not realizing he had a conversation just seconds before.
In 2017, Neeson opened up about Richardson dipping his toe in the entertainment business. Richardson later played Neeson’s onscreen son in 2019’s Cold Pursuit.
“I tried to talk him out of it because the profession is all about rejection, you know?” Neeson told 360aproko while promoting Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. “You go out for this part and you’re rejected — and you’re not rejected because of your education, you’re rejected because of this [motions to his whole body]. The space you occupy. You’re too tall. You’re too Irish. Your nose is too broken. You’re too this, you’re too that. So, you want to save your kids from all that.”
