Liam Neeson doctors his movie daughter Maggie Grace's dates and recently terrified her current boyfriend by insisting on a serious chat with him.

The actress, who plays Neeson's daughter in the Taken films, admits it's great to have someone like the formidable actor looking out for her and reveals he recently left a hotel press junket for their latest film, Taken 3, to have a word with her man.

She says, "He's met a couple of dates in the past and now I'm seeing someone who's, like, the real deal and he had to clear it, so in the middle of a press junket he snuck upstairs and my boyfriend was working away on the computer and he hears this banging on the door and the doorbell repetitively ringing.

"He opens the door and, in his words, he (Neeson) was, like, seven-and-a-half-feet tall... He just froze and Liam, he said, sounded like (Transformers robots) a Decepticon and it was like, 'Son, we need to sit down and have a conversation... about your intentions'.

"Who wouldn't want Liam, freaking, Neeson to take that role... I want him to handle everything, like, if I get a parking ticket..., trouble with my agent."

And Grace reveals her movie dad helped her pull a prank on one ex shortly after he broke her heart: "There was this boy and I was a little bit heartbroken... and I was telling Liam about it... and he was like, 'This just can't be. We have to set this kid straight. What shall we do?' So we called him at his office.

"Imagine being a young guy and working at your office and all of a sudden getting a call on a blocked number, and you answer it and it's basically the 'I have a special set of skills' speech (from Taken).

"It kinda backfired, because I think a lot of people in his office came in on speakerphone because they thought he was gonna be killed... and they were like, 'Wow, that really sounds like Liam Neeson'."

Grace's ex eventually saw the funny side to the prank and even asked his former girlfriend for a copy of the phone threat, which the actress aired during an appearance on chat show Conan.