--- title: Liam Neeson Says He's 'Not Racist' After Interview Saying He Set Out to Kill Black Man description: Liam Neeson spoke out for the first time about his controversial comments in which he expressed remorse for once wanting to kill an innocent black man in an act of revenge canonical: https://time.com/5521180/liam-neeson-kill-black-man-interview/ author: George Steer article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-05T15:07:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:20.202Z og:title: Liam Neeson Addresses That Controversial Interview Where He Admitted He Wanted to Kill a Black Man og:description: The actor said he once set out to kill a black man in an act of revenge og:url: https://time.com/5521180/liam-neeson-kill-black-man-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb749babf1a2bfb7/69869eb6cd804ddcc3ccc429/478262493.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3600 og:image:height: 2025 og:image:alt: Liam Neeson at the Los Angeles premiere of "Non-Stop" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Liam Neeson Addresses That Controversial Interview Where He Admitted He Wanted to Kill a Black Man twitter:description: The actor said he once set out to kill a black man in an act of revenge twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb749babf1a2bfb7/69869eb6cd804ddcc3ccc429/478262493.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Liam Neeson Addresses That Controversial Interview Where He Admitted He Wanted to Kill a Black Man > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f990373c-c004-4534-8b15-e9788012359d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [George Steer](https://time.com/author/george-steer/) ## George Steer Feb 5, 2019 3:07 PM UTC  Liam Neeson admitted to once wanting to kill a black man Liam Neeson admitted to once wanting to kill a black man Axelle/Bauer-Griffin—FilmMagic by [George Steer](https://time.com/author/george-steer/) ## George Steer Feb 5, 2019 3:07 PM UTC Actor Liam Neeson spoke out for the first time about his controversial comments in which he expressed remorse for once wanting to kill an innocent black man in an act of revenge. “I’m not racist, this was 40 years ago,” he said on _Good Morning America_ Tuesday. _“_The topic of our film is revenge, and the lady journalist was asking me how do you tap into that,” he said. Neeson has been pilloried after he revealed in an interview with [_The Independent_](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/liam-neeson-interview-rape-race-black-man-revenge-taken-cold-pursuit-a8760896.html) published on Monday that he regretted once setting out to kill any black man who provoked him. He had been promoting his new film _Cold Pursuit_, a thriller that centers on a man out for retribution after his son is murdered. After he found out someone close to him had been raped, Neeson told _The Independent_ his “immediate reaction was … I asked did she knew who it was? No. What color were they? She said it was a black person.” Neeson said he “went up and down areas with a cosh \[a blunt instrument used as a weapon\], hoping I’d be approached by somebody”. “I’m ashamed to say that. And I did it for maybe a week, hoping some black bastard would come out of a pub and have a go at me for something so I could kill him.” “It was horrible, horrible when I think back, that I did that. And I’ve never admitted that,” he added. But defending himself on _Good Morning America_ on Tuesday, Neeson said the race of the attacker was irrelevant: “If \[the victim\] had said an Irish, Scot, Brit, I know I would have felt the same way. I was trying to show honor and stand up for my dear friend in this medieval fashion. It shocked me when I realized the terrible things I said. Luckily, no violence occurred thanks be to God.” The actor also said he did “seek help” at the time by speaking to a priest and “power walking.” He said in the original interview that “something primal” kicks in when a loved one is the victim of violence. “God forbid you’ve ever had a member of your family hurt under criminal conditions,” he said, before recounting how he himself had nearly been driven to revenge. He also told of how growing up during The Troubles in Northern Ireland helped him “understand that need for revenge”. His insistence in the same interview that revenge “just leads to more revenge, and more killing, and more killing,” did not, however, ease the anger felt at his earlier revelation. > [](https://twitter.com/jemelehill/status/1092463858172612610) > [](https://twitter.com/tonyposnanski/status/1092471881545011205) Others sought to downplay the issue, however. John Barnes, a former footballer [who suffered racist abuse](https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2018/dec/12/racist-football-silenced-stadiums-john-barnes) while playing for Liverpool FC in the 1980’s, even said Neeson “deserved a medal” for his admission. “He said he was ashamed and horrified at what he felt,” said Barnes. > [](https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1092747754881929216) This is not the first interview of Neeson’s to draw controversy. In January 2018, he described how the MeToo movement, despite being “healthy” and a force for good, had become “[a bit of a witch hunt](https://www.thedailybeast.com/liam-neeson-bit-of-a-witch-hunt-in-metoo-movement)“. He also said he was “[on the fence](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/liam-neeson-hollywood-sex-scandal-dustin-hoffman-childhood-stuff-weinstein-spacey-behaviour-late-a8157411.html)” about sexual misconduct allegations leveled at Dustin Hoffman. “I’m not saying I’ve done similar things to what he did—apparently he touched some girls’ breasts—but it’s childhood stuff,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5521180/liam-neeson-kill-black-man-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5521180/liam-neeson-kill-black-man-interview/"},"headline":"Liam Neeson Addresses That Controversial Interview Where He Admitted He Wanted to Kill a Black Man","datePublished":"2019-02-05T15:07:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:20.202Z","description":"Liam Neeson spoke out for the first time about his controversial comments in which he expressed remorse for once wanting to kill an innocent black man in an act of revenge","url":"https://time.com/5521180/liam-neeson-kill-black-man-interview/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","celebrities","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb749babf1a2bfb7/69869eb6cd804ddcc3ccc429/478262493.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"George Steer","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/george-steer/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb749babf1a2bfb7/69869eb6cd804ddcc3ccc429/478262493.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Liam Neeson at the Los Angeles premiere of \"Non-Stop\"","caption":"Liam Neeson at the Los Angeles premiere of \"Non-Stop\"","creditText":"Axelle/Bauer-Griffin—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5521180/liam-neeson-kill-black-man-interview/","name":"Liam Neeson Addresses That Controversial Interview Where He Admitted He Wanted to Kill a Black Man"}}]}] ```