Liam Neeson insists he's 'not racist' after shock comments

Liam Neeson has broken his silence after shock comments about a revenge plot caused widespread backlash, but he insists he is ‘not racist’.

The 66-year-old actor has come under fire after he controversially confessed to wanting to take revenge on a black person after a female friend was raped.

But he’s now clarified his comments, explaining he was expressing the unexpected “primal urge” to lash out that he felt after his friend’s attack.

“We were doing a press junket and the topic of our film [‘Cold Pursuit’] is revenge,” he told Good Morning America.

“It’s a dark comedy, but its basis is revenge. The lady journalist asked me how I tapped into that.”

He described how he remembered an incident nearly 40 years ago where his friend was brutally raped, while he was out of the country.

“I had never felt this feeling before, which was a primal urge to lash out,” he said.

“She said he was 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, and I did it for four or five times until I caught myself on.

“It shocked me, this primal urge I had. It shocked me. It hurt me.”

Liam admitted he sought help for his violent feelings.

“I did seek help. I went to a priest, [he] heard my confession and I was a Catholic. I am not racist. This was nearly 40 years ago.”

The veteran actor admitted he’d have reacted in the same way if his friend’s rapist had been white.

Asked by host Robin Roberts if he’d have done the same towards white people, he said: “Oh, definitely. If she’d have said an Irish, or a Scot, or a Brit, or a Lithuanian, I know it would have had the same effect. I was trying to show honour, to stand up for my dear friend.

Liam made his shocking admission during an interview with the UK’s The Independent to promote his new movie.

He has admitted his shocking confession was “horrible” and he eventually learned a lesson from his “awful” attitude.

With reporting by Bang Showbiz.

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