Actor Liam Neeson has told a US magazine he will never make another film and was quitting in disgust at being treated like a "puppet".
The surprise announcement comes as the 46-year-old star looks set to achieve even greater fame in the new Star War film, The Phantom Menace, which opens in the US in two weeks' time.
After more than 20 films - including Rob Roy, The Mission, Michael Collins and Schindler's List, for which he received an Oscar nomination, Neeson said he was completely disillusioned with the cinema and can't even bear to watch films, especially his own.
"I'm getting out, I'm retiring from movies next year," he said. "Honest to God, I'm not happy doing it - I don't want to do it anymore," he told Redbook magazine. "Film is a director's medium, it has nothing to do with actors. We are basically puppets, walking around, hitting marks, saying lines. Producers earn all the money, and you get the sense that they hate actors. The crews are treated like slaves."
The actor, a native of Ballymena, Co Antrim, said he had two more films "in the can" but wants time off to help his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, look after their sons Michael, three, and Daniel, two. He said he plans to return to the stage to act in just one play each year.