Michael Caton-Jones’ historical biography “Rob Roy” had the bad luck of being released on April 7, 2025, only about a month and a half before Mel Gibson’s juggernaut “Braveheart.” Both films were about notable Scottish rebels, with “Rob Roy” centering on a 16th-century folk hero and “Braveheart” (very, very loosely) focusing on a 14th-century freedom fighter. As such, audiences couldn’t help but compare the two films. “Braveheart” was the larger, more expensive, more violent, and more crowd-pleasing of the two, and it would go on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. “Rob Roy” was kind of swallowed by the Hollywood “Braveheart” hype.
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That’s a pity, really, seeing as “Rob Roy” is a fantastic film unto itself. Liam Neeson stars in the movie as Rob Roy MacGregor, a put-upon Scottish clan leader who has to borrow some money to establish himself as a powerful cattle trader and feed his people. Sadly, he has a loan stolen by the evil, effeminate Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth), who kills his friends and assaults his wife (Jessica Lange). This leads to a complex plot of intrigue with double-dealings, secret crimes, false accusations, real accusations, and a plan to take revenge at the tip of a rapier. The film climaxes with a sword fight between Rob Roy and Cunningham that sees the two displaying very different fencing styles, and a gradual unraveling of their respective cool. It’s one of the best sword fights ever featured in a movie.
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Roth, it should be noted, was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his turn in “Rob Roy.” Many years later, the actor (whose many other roles include that of Emil Blonsky, aka the Abomination, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) appeared on the “Overdue Rentals” podcast to talk about his career, and he confessed that the “Rob Roy” sword fight got a little carried away. It seems that when Neeson grabbed Roth’s sword during a key moment in the sequence, it slipped through his fingers and stabbed him in the hand.
Tim Roth stabbed Liam Neeson in the hand on the set of Rob Roy
Roth explained that he had to engage in a lot of serious sword training to play Cunningham, as his character was a notable swordsman. Neeson’s Rob Roy, meanwhile, was less elegant with a sword. Neeson, of course, underwent sword training, but Roth felt that he was much further along than his co-star. As such, when he made a particular move, he clipped Neeson. As he put it:
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“I had loads of time to practice, so I was working with [Neeson’s] double. This amazing guy, that actually really looked like him as well. But I was working, rehearsing with his double a lot, so I had my moves down, but Liam was playing catch up with us. So at one point, he went to parry a move that I did, and my sword went in-between his finger and up in [his hand]. It was like, ‘Oh my god, medic!’ And they’re blunt-ended swords, they were carefully crafted, made out of aluminum, I think.”
Indeed, though the “Rob Roy” actors didn’t have to worry about being fatally stabbed by the prop swords they were using, the swords could still — as both Roth and Neeson learned — cause injury.
Roth was quick to add that karma did eventually snag him. He was making what he called “a crap film” a few years later when he was stabbed in the hand in the exact same spot he stabbed Neeson. It’s likely that the “crap film” in question was “The Musketeer,” a 2001 actioner helmed by Peter Hyams (whose more notable credits include the ’80s action movie “Outland”) and inspired by the works of Alexandre Dumas. In that film, Roth played Febre, another villain skilled in swordplay. “The Musketeer,” one might be able to intuit, did not net Roth any Oscar nods. It did, however, allow Neeson to get a little bit of blood revenge (in a roundabout way).
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