‘I’m not a racist,’ Neeson says after revenge remarks
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Actor Liam Neeson denied on Wednesday being a racist after disclosing in an interview that he had wanted to kill a black man in response to the rape of a friend who said her attacker was black.
Responding to the backlash his comments had drawn, the 66-year-old Irish star of the new film “Cold Pursuit,” told the US television network ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “I’m not a racist.”
Neeson said he had learned that society needed to have a larger discussion to end racism and bigotry. On Monday, Neeson told the British newspaper The
Independent that he related to characters in his movies such as “Taken” who seek revenge when someone close to them is hurt. He said a female friend told him decades ago that she had been raped by a man who was black.