Liam Neeson Sings a Surprise Love Ballad to Pamela Anderson’s Character in The Naked Gun Reboot End Credits

2 August 2025

Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson in 'The Naked Gun'. Paramount Pictures

Liam Neeson closes out The Naked Gun reboot with a surprise musical cameo, performing a tongue-in-cheek love song called “My Sweet Beth” in his role as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. that screens audiences did not see coming and has quickly become comedy-cinema gold. According to director Akiva Schaffer, the song was a last‑minute idea added after picture lock.

As the team gathered to show a final cut screen to approximately ninety friends and family members, Schaffer realised the credits felt empty. Without hesitation he opened a laptop and recorded a rough version himself, placed it into the film, and within two hours saw that the crowd laughed. Neeson then replaced Schaffer’s backup vocals with his own for the final version. Despite the eleventh‑hour production, the gag landed a loving parody of classic ballads and a fitting capstone to absurdist action­comedy.

In character, Neeson sings directly to the film’s femme fatale, Beth Davenport, played by Pamela Anderson as a smart and curvy author drawn into Drebin’s chaotic mystery in The Naked Gun reboot. Over a wistfully comedic melody, Neeson declares adoration in lines like “Top‑shelf curves and brains to boot / And boots that would top my brain’s top‑ten list / Also breasts / My Sweet Beth.” The delivery is intentionally earnest yet tongue‑in‑cheek, playing the absurd romance trope with affection. The scene cuts to Neeson’s face in the studio as he discovers a bass drum or a guitar mid‑recording and strums along in a Lionel Richie‑style duet gone delightfully awry.

This moment also marked Neeson’s return to musical performance on film decades after Duet for One in 1986, when he sang a nervous version of “Green Green Grass of Home” to Julie Andrews with much embarrassment. “Terrified, f‑‑‑ing terrified,” Neeson recalls of that time and says he felt none of it during the Naked Gun session partly because it was meant as comedy, not award show material.

Beyond the song itself, the reboot maintains the franchise’s playful DNA. Directed by Schaffer of Hot Rod and Popstar fame and produced by Seth MacFarlane in fill of love for the slapstick originals, the film stars Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., the son of Leslie Nielsen’s iconic cop, alongside Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Danny Huston.

The narrative sends Drebin Jr. into overdrive to save Police Squad from being converted into a Halloween chain store, lampooning modern tech oligarchs, streaming culture, and franchise logic on the way. Pamela Anderson also performs a jazz scat number titled “Sassafras Chicken in D,” an intentionally over‑the‑top Broadway‑style diversion at a crime scene. Written by Elizabeth Gillies and John McNeely, the scene was filmed in real time with Anderson channeling bizarre energy and improvisation. Critics and audiences praised it as a wild highlight and evidence that she embraced comedy with gusto.

Fans of the original series waited decades for a meaningful revival, and the reboot doesn’t disappoint. It includes nods to classic characters like O.J. Simpson’s Nordberg, updated through the next generation; cameos from “Weird Al” Yankovic reprising himself, Priscilla Presley in a silent gag, and WWE star Cody Rhodes playing a drunk bartender, all layered into a world that’s consciously silly yet thoughtful. The ensemble cast also includes Liza Koshy, Kevin Durand, Busta Rhymes, and CCH Pounder. “My Sweet Beth” plays over credits that recall the original’ trademark quirky cut‑away jokes, blending nostalgia and invention to close both film and franchise loop.

Music in reboot comedies often consumes a shadow role, but composer Lorne Balfe’s soundtrack ignites with nostalgia and irony in equal measure. Balfe collaborates with Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band to reinvent Ira Newborn’s iconic Police Squad! theme and weave jazzy brass grooves that underpin the film’s kinetic tone. Within the official soundtrack, Neeson’s “My Sweet Beth” and Anderson’s “Sassafras Chicken in D” are featured as cheeky full tracks, highlighting the film's unexpected embrace of musical satire.

Milan Records

The unexpected addition of Neeson’s song may have changed the tone of the closing credits entirely and served as a cheeky reassurance to longtime fans that the spirit of the originals survives. Though directed by a modern filmmaker and framed for today’s audiences, the film deliberately winks at fans of Police Squad and the original trilogy cast, including portraits and references to Nielsen, Simpson, and George Kennedy in mid‑credits montages. The reboot opens on August 1 and early audience responses report laughter, callbacks, and an embrace of its self‑aware silliness.

Among the laughter the song also reveals about Neeson’s adaptability. Known for stoic roles in Taken, Schindler’s List, and intense action dramas, here he plays slightly campy detective, dryly verbal above slapstick pratfalls. For the ballad he leaned into comedic timing and self‑parody rather than melodic chops, saying he wanted to sound heartfelt enough to sell it yet humorous enough to keep it real. His performance reads as a wink to the audience, as if Drebin Jr. has suddenly believed he’s in a rom‑com while wearing a badge.

By adding “My Sweet Beth” literally as a sonic afterthought, The Naked Gun reboot closes on a note of reunion between old fans and new viewers, between slapstick and sincerity, and between film and musical gag. It revises the late‑night cops‑and‑robbers formula by making room for absurd intimacy. As Neeson croons to Beth on screen and Schaffer laughs off the last‑minute scramble, audiences are left reassured that the world of Drebin still rewards one last big fake love song in the credits.