RACIST? NO WAY!

Liam: Shocked I wanted to kill a black guy

If you were stunned by what Liam Neeson wanted to do, you’re not alone. He was, too. The actor said he isn’t racist and that he was “shocked” by his “primal urge” to attack a black man nearly 40 years ago after learning a close friend had been raped.

The actor, who first owned up to the stunning story in a recent interview with The Independent, opened up Tuesday on “Good Morning America” about what was going through his head after a woman close to him, whom he has not identified, told him she’d been raped by a black man.

“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 told host Robin Roberts.

“It really shocked me, this primal urge I had,” he continued. “It shocked me, and it hurt me.”

Neeson, 66, said he went out on the search four or five times before he came to his senses, and sought help afterward.

“I went to a priest (who) heard my confession. … I had two very, very good friends that I talked to,” Neeson said on the ABC morning show. “And believe it or not, power walking. Two hours every day. To get rid of this.”

He continued, “I’m not racist.”

Neeson’s friend died about five years ago, he said.

The appearance on “GMA” comes a day after Neeson’s admission to The Independent was published online. He told the outlet that he was “hoping some ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could…kill him.”

Neeson said on “GMA” that he did ask about other physical characteristics of his friend’s attacker beyond his race.

He said he would’ve had the same reaction if he had been told the attacker was white.

“Oh definitely,” Neeson said Tuesday. “If she had said an Irish, or a Scot, or a Brit or a Lithuanian, I know I would’ve had the same effect. I was trying to show honor to (and) stand up for my dear friend in this terrible, medieval fashion.

“I’m a fairly intelligent guy,” he continued. “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.”

He said he did think he would’ve gone through with it had he been confronted.

“That was my feeling, that I did want to lash out. Yes,” he said.

The Irish actor said he hopes his coming forward with his story will spark a wider conversation.

“We all pretend we’re all kind of politically correct,” he said. “In this country, it’s the same in my own country too, you sometimes just scratch the surface and you discover this racism and bigotry, and it’s there.”