Ray on doing research, Detour Magazine April 1994. He might have taken it a bit too far though. While observing a procedure Ray passed out and fell on his face. He needed fifteen stitches and dental work on two chipped teeth.
After two nice-guy roles he returned to a real bad guy in Unlawful Entry. He played Officer Pete Davis, an L.A.P.D. cop quite a few slices short of a loaf. He first befriends Kurt Russell and Madeline Stowe when their house is robbed. But Russell goes on a ride-along one night and sees how out of control Ray's character is when he viciously beats the man who broke in to Russell's house. This scene of a white L.A.P.D. officer beating a black man had to be cut because the film came out right after the Rodney King incident. Several L.A.P.D. officers were videotaped beating an unarmed black man and riots broke out when they were acquitted. The director toned down this scene as much as possible. "The whole point of the scene was to show how sick and crazy I am. Between the realistic way it was shot and the fact that it was a white cop and a black suspect, kind of took people out of the movie." Entertainment Weekly, July 17, 1992.
1992 also brought a brief romantic brush with Cher. However Liotta insists it was only one date and the press blew the whole thing out of proportion.
He next returned to a tough guy role, though this time a heroic one, in No Escape. In this action movie he played Marine Captain Robbins convicted of murdering his commanding officer and sentenced to life on a penal colony run by a corrupt corporation for profit. The prison is really just a remote island populated by other inmates who to have survive each other, as well as live solely off the resources of the island. Robbins soon finds himself caught between the two warring tribes of inmates and plots to find a way off the island. It did well at the box office. "I needed to do something that was on the heroic side. I mean, in addition to beating people up, I actually got to cry and emote." Satellite Entertainment guide April 1996.
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