Just hours after Liam Neeson made headlines for his racist revenge plot to kill “some black bastard” over the rape of his close friend, the “Taken” actor took to “Good Morning America” to explain himself.
“The lady journalist was asking me how do you tap into that,” Neeson recalled of the press junket for his forthcoming film, “Cold Pursuit,” in which he plays a driver who seeks revenge for the murder of his son.
“I remembered an incident nearly 40 years ago where a very dear friend of mine was brutality raped and I was out of the country and when I came back, she told me about this and she handled the situation herself and her rapist incredibly bravely,” he said. “I have to say that, but I had never felt this feeling before, which was a primal urge to lash out. I asked her, ‘Did you know the person? It was a man. His race? She said he was a black man.”
“I thought, ‘OK, and 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,” Neeson continued. “I did it for I’d say maybe four or five times until I caught myself on and it really shocked me, this primal urge I had….It shocked me and it hurt me.”
As Neeson continued, he said he also asked his friend for other characteristics, other than his race, and even spoke to a priest about his dark thoughts.
“I’m not racist,” he said, as he detailed his upbringing during tensions between Catholic and Protestant people in Ireland. “I grew up surrounded by that, but I was never part of it.”
While, many gave Neeson the benefit of the doubt, most were offended over the fact that Neeson revealed that had a mind to kill “some black bastard,” but when asked if he would have reacted the same if the rapist was white, he said, “Oh, definitely…I know I would have had the same effect…I was trying to show honor, stand up for my dear friend in this terrible, medieval fashion.”
“I’m a fairly intelligent guy- that’s why it kind of shocked me when I came down to Earth after having these horrible feelings. Luckily no violence occurred ever, thanks be to God.”
From there, Neeson called the entire ordeal a “teachable moment,” adding that, “to talk, to open up, to talk about these things..we all pretend we’re all kind of politically correct…you sometimes just scratch the surface and you discover the racism and bigotry and it’s there.”
Just as the interview concluded, Robin Roberts opened Neeson’s eyes to his offensive verbiage, especially towards a black person.
“Of course, absolutely. You’re absolutely right and at the time, even though it was nearly 40 years ago, I didn’t think about that,” Neeson admitted. “All those things surprised me, but it was this primal hatred I guess that really, really shocked me when I eventually came down to earth and saw what I was doing, going out and looking for a fight.”
As he concluded, “Violence breeds violence. Bigotry breeds bigotry.”
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