“Because we’re all fucked. And we need a few giggles,” he told Variety Monday at the movie’s New York City premiere. He delivered the line in the deadpan style of his on-screen persona, Frank Drebin Jr., the biological (and spiritual) heir to Leslie Nielsen’s iconic police lieutenant. The character last graced the big screen in 1994.

Neeson plays ‘Frank Drebin Jr.,’ the son of Leslie Nielsen’s character, and is joined by Pamela Anderson and Paul Walter Hauser in the new comedy. Doug Hyde contributed to this story by David Daniel.