Liam Neeson has responded to claims that he is ‘racist’ after he recently admitted that he had thoughts about killing a black man after someone close to him was raped.
The actor appeared on Good Morning America to clear his name, he said:Â “I’m not racist, this was nearly 40 years ago.”
“We were doing a press junket and the topic of the film is revenge, it’s a dark comedy too, and the lady journalist was asking me ‘How do you tap into that?’.”
“And I remembered an incident nearly 40 years ago where a very dear friend of mine was brutally raped and I was out of the country, and when I came back she told me about it.”
Liam Neeson tells @RobinRoberts he wants to set the record straight: he’s ‘not a racist.’ https://t.co/qtifVy7ET0 pic.twitter.com/x0y25qerHN
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 5, 2019
The 66-year-old admitted that despite his friend acting ‘incredibly bravely’ he had an ‘urge to lash out.’
He added: “After that there were some nights I went out deliberately into black areas in the city, looking to be set upon so that I could unleash physical violence.”
“I did it four, maybe four or five times until I caught myself and it really shocked me, this primal urge. It was shocking.”
When asked what he wanted the public to learn from this ordeal, Liam said: “To talk, to open up, to talk about these things.”
the Irish actor continued to urge people to open up, he said: “We all pretend we’re all politically correct, I mean, in this country and same in my own, sometimes you scratch the surface and discover this racism and bigotry, and it’s there.”
“And at the time, even though this was nearly 40 years ago, I didn’t think about that, all those things surprised me. But it was this primal hatred, I guess, that really shocked me.”
“When I eventually came down to earth and saw what I was doing: looking for a fight.”
“Violence breeds violence. Bigotry breeds bigotry.”
