Neeson’s comment on killing friend’s rapist draws criticism

I went up and down areas with a cosh hoping to kill, says Liam

London: Actor Liam Neeson has revealed that he once wanted to kill a black man with a cosh after a friend of his was raped but he feels ashamed of the thought now.

Neeson, whose most recent filmography can be defined by a number of revenge thrillers, most notably the Taken series, is currently promoting his latest from the same genre, Cold Pursuit.

In the new film, the 66year- old actor yet again plays a revenge seeking man. Neeson recounted the disturbing incident and its immediate aftermath in an interview with the Independent.

“There’s something primal — God forbid you’ve ever had a member of your family hurt under criminal conditions. I’ll tell you a story. This is true,” he said.

He said many years ago, when he returned from an overseas trip, his friend, a woman whose name he refused to take, told him she had been raped.

“She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way. But my immediate reaction was... I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they?

She said it was a black person,” Neeson said.

He then recalled his days wandering on the streets with a weapon hoping a black man would approach him and he would kill him. During the interview, the actor appeared remorseful as he looks back at his actions.

“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... Kill him.

But the actor’s comment did not go down well with the social media users, particulary the black community. “Well, I’ve seen it all now. Liam Neeson admitted to going around trying to find a black person to kill because someone he was close to got raped by a black person, and the journalist spoke to a psychologist to help contextualise his racism and included it in the article? WILD,” a person wrote on Twitter. The actor is responding on the backlash he is receiving online.