Pamela Anderson Calls Naked Gun Costar Liam Neeson a 'Gentleman': He 'Sincerely Looked After Me' (Exclusive)

The Naked Gun costars Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson developed a mutual admiration on the set of the movie.

Neeson, 72, and Anderson, 57, filmed the upcoming reboot of the fan-favorite Leslie Nielsen cop comedy earlier this year and each came away impressed.

“With Pamela, first off, I'm madly in love with her. She's just terrific to work with,” Neeson says in the new issue of PEOPLE. “I can't compliment her enough, I'll be honest with you. No huge ego. She just comes in to do the work. She's funny and so easy to work with. She's going to be terrific in the film.”

Anderson plays a “femme fatale” opposite Neeson, who stars as Frank Drebin Jr., presumably the son of Nielsen’s character Frank Drebin. And while the Oscar-nominated actor praises Anderson’s work, he’s less sure of his own comedy skills as the lead.

"Whether I can carry it or not, I honestly don’t know,” he says. 

Anderson disagrees. “It was hard to keep a straight face in scenes together,” she says, calling the actor “humble.”

Neeson is also “the perfect gentleman,” says Anderson. “He brings out the best in you… with respect, kindness and depth of experience. It was an absolute honor to work with him.”

The costars carried out acts of kindness while filming the movie (directed by Akiva Schaffer and also starring Paul Walter Hauser and Danny Huston).

Anderson says Neeson “sincerely looked after me — wrapped his coat around me when I was cold.” She, in turn, made him bread and cookies and left them for him in his dressing room.

Neeson, who was a fan of the original movies — “They were a good giggle,” he says — was recruited for this version by producer Seth MacFarlane, his A Million Ways to Die in the West costar. “He approached me about it: ‘They are going to reboot it, would you be interested?’ I thought, ‘Yeah, I would actually.’ ”

Ahead of his turn to comedy, Neeson, who became an action star in midlife thanks to the 2009 movie Taken, continues to kick butt a bit more before his planned retirement from the genre in 2025. 

In his new movie Absolution, he plays a former boxer and low-level criminal who’s diagnosed with CTE. As he grapples with his new reality, he hopes to make amends with his estranged daughter — and releases his aggression on some bad dudes.

Absolution is in theaters Nov. 1.

For more on Liam Neeson, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.