Taken star Liam Neeson has sparked a major controversy with his recent remarks pertaining to the African-American community. In a recent interview with The Independent, where Neeson was speaking to promote his new film, Cold Pursuit, a revenge thriller, the actor spoke of an alleged rape of a friend that took place a long time ago and how he found out about it when he came back from a trip abroad.
He said about the rape victim, "She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way."But my immediate reaction was... I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person."
"I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I'd be approached by somebody -- I'm ashamed to say that -- and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some (uses air quotes with fingers) '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, however, has denied that he is racist. On ABC's Good Morning America, he said he had been trying to “honour his dear friend” after she was brutally raped 40 years ago. “I’m not racist,” said the 66-year-old. “I was brought up in Northern Ireland. The Troubles. The 60s, 70s and 80s. There was a war going on in the north of Ireland. I had acquaintances who were involved in the Troubles, the bigotry. One Catholic would be killed, the next day a Protestant would be killed … I grew up surrounded by that.”
On GMA, he said learning of his friend's rape about 40 years ago, who has since died, “I had never felt this feeling before, which was a primal urge to lash out." Asked what he wanted people to take from his experience, he told the host: "To talk. To open up. We all pretend we're all politically correct in this country... in mine, too. You sometimes just scratch the surface and you discover this racism and bigotry and it's there."
Former England footballer and anti-racism campaigner, John Barnes, has defended Neeson in an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live. "He was ashamed a week into it. He understood that he was wrong for thinking what he did. And we have to have this conversation," Barnes said.
Following a massive outcry over his remarks, a New York red carpet opening of Taken actor's film Cold Pursuit has been cancelled. Reporters were told the event for Cold Pursuit was being pulled two hours before it was scheduled to happen, the BBC reported. Organisers of the event said there would be no photographs or interviews at the New York City showing.
(With inputs from IANS)
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