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Liam Neeson sparks controversy over rape and race comments

Actor admits his thinking was horrible

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Liam Neeson has admitted he wanted to “kill” someone in revenge after a woman he knows was raped.

The 66-year-old actor had a “primal” urge to lash out and walked the streets with a weapon hoping to get into a fight in a misguided attempt at revenge with a man who fitted the profile of her attacker.

Liam had a primal urge (Credit: Wenn)

Liam – who didn’t reveal the woman’s identity or her relationship to him – told The Independent: “There’s something primal – God forbid you’ve ever had a member of your family hurt under criminal conditions.

“I’ll tell you a story. This is true. 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.

Liam came to his senses (Credit: Wenn)

“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 ‘black [bleep]’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know?

“So that I could kill him.”

The Cold Pursuit star admitted he took over a week for his rage to subside and to get some perspective.

He added in the interview: “It took me a week, maybe a week and a half, to go through that.

Liam in new movie Cold Pursuit (Credit: Splash)

“She would say, ‘Where are you going?’ And I would say, ‘I’m just going out for a walk.’ You know? ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘No no, nothing’s wrong.’ ”

Liam admits his shocking confession was “horrible” and he eventually learned a lesson from his “awful” attitude.

He said: “It was horrible, horrible, when I think back, that I did that. And I’ve never admitted that, and I’m saying it to a journalist.

“God forbid. It’s awful. But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the [bleep] are you doing,’ you know?”

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