DAMAGE CONTROL

Liam Neeson: Power-Walking Helped Cure My Racist Thoughts

Northern Irish actor insists he’s not a racist.

Liam Neeson has broken his silence a day after an interview was published in which he admitted he wanted to murder a “black bastard” after someone close to him was raped. Appearing Tuesday on Good Morning America, the Northern Irish actor explained: “We were doing a press junket and the topic of the film is revenge, it’s a dark comedy too, and the lady journalist was asking me ‘How do you tap into that?’ and I remembered an incident nearly 40 years ago where a very dear friend of mine was brutally raped and I was out of the country, and when I came back she told me about it.” He went on: “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 ... I did it four, maybe four or five times until I caught myself and it really shocked me, this primal urge. It was shocking.” He claimed he would have reacted the same way if the rapist was white, saying: "If she had said an Irish or a Scot or a Brit or a Lithuanian I would ... have had the same effect.” Neeson added that he managed to get over his dark thoughts by seeking help through a priest and two good friends, and, he said: “Believe it or not, power-walking, two hours every day, to get rid of this.”

REVENGE FANTASY

Liam Neeson: I Went Out Looking to Murder a ‘Black B*stard’

Jamie Ross