During an interview with British online newspaper The Independent Monday to promote his latest movie, Cold Pursuit, global superstar Liam Neeson recounted a personal story in which he unwittingly confessed to being homicidally racist. In an attempt to illustrate the power of vengeance, his character's driving motivation in the film, the veteran actor revealed that years ago, a woman that he cared about disclosed to him that she'd recently been raped. Neeson's response was to ask if she knew the identity of her attacker. When she denied any familiarity with the rapist, Neeson inquired about his race. The Taken star continued -- unprompted -- that after being told that the perpetrator was Black, he subsequently roamed the streets for a week with a cosh (British slang for a heavy club) in search of a Black man to kill. He even went to "Black areas" in search of an unsuspecting man to assault. Neeson also discussed his upbringing in Ireland during "The Troubles", a guerrilla war between Catholic Irish nationalists and Protestant unionists that claimed the lives of 3,500 people, 52% of whom were civilians. Despite his identification as a Roman Catholic, the actor's only admitted intentions of violence were aimed at random Black men and not white Protestants, some of whom waged attacks against the wider Catholic community, nor the British troops deployed to the island to (often brutally) suppress the violence. Read Neeson's comments below:
“She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way,” Neeson says. “But my immediate reaction was…” There’s a pause. “I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person."
“I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody – I’m ashamed to say that – and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could,” another pause, “kill him.”
“It took me a week, maybe a week and a half, to go through that. She would say, ‘Where are you going?’ and I would say, ‘I’m just going out for a walk.’ You know? ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘No no, nothing’s wrong.’”
“Holy shit,” says Tom Bateman, his co-star, who is sitting beside him. All three of us know – Neeson, Bateman and I – that this is a distressing admission. “I come from a society – I grew up in Northern Ireland in the Troubles – and, you know, I knew a couple of guys that died on hunger strike, and I had acquaintances who were very caught up in the Troubles, and I understand that need for revenge, but it just leads to more revenge, to more killing and more killing, and Northern Ireland’s proof of that. All this stuff that’s happening in the world, the violence, is proof of that, you know. But that primal need, I understand.”
It's worth noting that Neeson didn't make any claims to attempting to track down the specific person responsible, he simply intended to murder a Black man. Following the public relations nightmare that his revelation ignited, Neeson appeared on Good Morning America the day after his Independent interview was published and after somehow denying being a racist, explained to co-host Robin Roberts that the events he described took place 40 years ago. However, that would place the actor at 26-year-old and unquestionably adult.
Originally Posted 2/5/19
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