Liam Neeson denies 'racist' backlash after comments about wanting to kill black man following friend's rape
The actor is addressing the backlash over his revelation that he wanted to 'kill' a black man after one of his family members was raped.
Michelle Rodriguez apologized on Saturday after she said actor Liam Neeson, who stirred up controversy after revealing he once sought to kill a black person in revenge, couldn’t be a racist because “racists don’t make out with the race that they hate.”
The actress said in a post on her social media pages that she realized her “choice of words” were “insensitive.”
“To my friends and colleagues and my fans and community: I want to deeply apologize for my recent choice of words, and poor use of example. In a pressure-filled situation, I defended a friend in the wrong way,” she wrote. “I now realize how insensitive it was, and I had no intention of invoking such a terrible historical comparison. I have learned from this, and will grow from it. One Love, MRod,” the statement read.
Neeson received backlash after he told The Independent, while promoting his new film “Cold Pursuit,” that he once sought revenge on someone he described as a “black bastard” after a female family member told him she was raped.
"I asked, did she know who it was? No. What color were they? She said it was a black person,” the 66-year-old actor said. "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 [in air quotes] '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 he felt “horrible” for the incident and sought help from a priest and several good friends after it.
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While at an event in New York last week, Rodriguez tried to defend Neeson by referencing her experience working alongside Neeson and Viola Davis in the 2018 film “Widows.”
“It’s all f---ing bulls---. Liam Neeson is not a racist," Rodriguez, 40, said. "Dude, have you watched Widows? His tongue was so far down Viola Davis’s throat. You can’t call him a racist ever."
"Racists don’t make out with the race that they hate, especially in the way he does with his tongue — so deep down her throat. I don’t care how good of an actor you are. It’s all bulls---. Ignore it. He’s not a racist. He’s a loving man. It’s all lies,” she added.
Fox News' Nicole Darrah contributed to this report.
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