by Madeleine Aggeler
Earlier this week, the world received this small blessing: Liam Neeson said that on the set of his new Coen Brothers movie, The Ballad of Buster Scurggs, one of the sweet, majestic horses actors remembered him from the set of a previous movie.
“I play a traveling impresario. We filmed in New Mexico. The odd thing is the horse who pulls my wagon knew me,” he told the crowd at the New York Film Festival, according to Cindy Sherman at “Page Six.”
“You won’t believe it. I’m saying this horse knew me. He actually remembered me from another Western we made a while back.”
How did Neeson know the horse, presumably a very good boy, remembered him? “He whinnied when he saw me, and pawed the ground.” Ah.
Shortly after “Page Six” published the story, Russell Crowe chimed in on Twitter, saying that he’s had two horses remember him over the course of his acting career — George and Rusty — whom he describes as “lifelong friends”.
There is some scientific evidence to indicate horses might remember people. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Sussex found that horses can remember people’s facial expressions, and whether they appeared threatening or friendly. The scientists showed horses pictures of people who looked angry or happy, and then, several hours later, introduced them to the same people in person, and found that the horses were noticeably more wary of the people who had looked angry in their pictures, and more relaxed around the people who had looked happy.
This excerpt is published with permission. Read the entire article on The Cut. Find more interesting stories in our section on Entertainment.
