Liam Neeson insists he's not racist - but says he would've killed a black person
Liam Neeson has sensationally admitted that he would have killed an innocent black person during a furious vigilante rage - but insists that he isn't racist.
The Taken actor, 66, has come under fire after he revealing he sought out a black person to kill after a relative was raped.
Speaking to Robin Roberts on Good Morning America today, he explained why he had said what he had.
"I remembered an incident a few years ago where my friend was brutally raped," he said. "She handled the situation incredibly bravely and I had never felt this feeling before - it was a primal urge to lash out."
Liam continued: "After that there were some nights where I went deliberately out to black areas deliberately to be set upon so I could unleash physical violence and I did it four or five times."
He described it as a "primal urge" which "shocked him" and said that he sought help from a priest and by "power-walking" two hours a day.
But he insisted: "I'm not racist - it was almost 40 years ago... I was brought up in Northern Ireland, The Troubles. There was a war going on [and I] had acquaintances involved... I grew up surrounded by that but I was never a part of it."
Asked about the woman who had been raped, he revealed that she had died five years ago and insisted that he had asked her about other attributes the rapist had other than his race.
"If she'd said an Irish, a Brit, a Scot, a Lithuanian, I would have had the same [reaction]. I tried to show honour her in this medieval fashion. It shocked me when I came down to earth," he said. "That was my feeling, that I did want to lash out, because my friend was brutally raped and I wanted to show honour."
Host Robin asked him what he was hoping that people would learn from him, he said: "To open up, to talk about these things. We like to pretend we're politically correct."
Liam recalled shooting critically-exclaimed film Schindler's List when they experienced anti-semitic racism in Poland, including comments from drivers and seeing swastika signs painted on walls.
"This wasn't discovered by somebody, you admitted to it," Robin said, giving him credit, but added: "You could have killed an innocent black person."
To which Liam responded: "They could have killed me too!"
"I know you're getting crucified," host Robin continued. "But you have to understand the pain of a black person."
"At the time, 40 years ago, I didn't think about it," Liam said. "But it was this primal hatred that really shocked me... violence breeds violence, bigotry breeds bigotry."
He ended the interview by quipping: "But see the movie, it's a good movie."
This comes after the journalist whose interview with the actor sparked the huge race row opened up about the "inappropriate comment" he made at the end of their chat earlier today.
