Liam Neeson Says He Once Prowled The Streets With A Club, Looking To Kill The "Black Bastard" Who Raped His Friend
Independent- Liam Neeson has revealed he once walked the streets with a cosh for days looking to kill a “black bastard” after someone close to him was raped many years ago.
“She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way,” Neeson said during the interview, which can be read in full here. “But my immediate reaction was … 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 [Neeson gestures air quotes with his 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.”
He added: “It’s awful. But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the fuck are you doing’, you know?
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One of the first things you learn in acting class is to draw from experience. Let your memories and experiences inform your acting choices. For Liam’s upcoming “Cold Pursuit,” where he plays a snow plow driver hell-bent on avenging his murdered son, he apparently drew from the time when he walked around looking to kill a black guy who raped his friend.
Huh. Yikes.
You have to believe there were times during the filming of Cold Pursuit when the director had to tell Liam to dial it back:
“I’m gonna kill the black rapist who murdered my son!” yells Neeson, driving the snow bank off the road so that children can attend school in the morning.
“Cut! Liam, uhm… love the energy. However, the villains are wealthy, white drug dealers that go by names like Viking, Speedo, and Santa. ‘Black rapist’ is… an interesting choice, but let’s try to stick with the script here?” says the impish director, slouching in his canvas high chair, terrified of the foam frothing from his lead actor’s mouth.
That’s a pretty telling story from Liam Neeson, though. The guy spent a week walking around with a night stick, waiting for any random black guy to approach him so that he could murder him. Doesn’t seem like it mattered whether it was the right guy or not. Just indiscriminately looking to murder any member of an entire race. I don’t have much experience with murder-revenge, but I can tell you that it helps to have more details about the guy. Height, tattoos, facial hair, clothing… these can help narrow it down a bit, thus improving your chances that you’ll murder the right guy. I actually learned this from the movie Taken, starring Liam Neeson. He tells his daughter to look for distinguishing features, like tattoos. This helps in the end. If only he’d made that movie before this whole rape-revenge crusade.
Christ. Thank God he didn’t kill anyone, or the world might never have known the wonders of Taken 1, 2, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Run All Night, and the one on the plane where he loads the clip in mid-air.