New York ceremony for film Cold Pursuit called off after actor said friend’s rape made him want to kill black man

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The New York celebrity red carpet event on Tuesday for Liam Neeson’s new film Cold Pursuit has been cancelled in the wake of an interview in which the actor said he wanted to kill a black man in response to the rape of a friend who said her attacker was black.

The movie studio Lionsgate declined to comment but a source familiar with the matter said that a red carpet, where movie stars pose for photos and speak with reporters, would be inappropriate.

The US premiere for the movie, in which Neeson plays a man seeking revenge for his son’s killers, was still expected to go ahead on Tuesday.

Responding to the backlash his comments had drawn, the 66-year-old Irish star told the US television network ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday: “I’m not a racist.”

Liam Neeson says he is not a racist in wake of rape comments Read more

Neeson said he had learned that society needed to have a larger discussion to end racism and bigotry.

On Monday, Neeson told the British newspaper the Independent that he related to characters in his movies such as Taken who seek revenge when someone close to them is hurt. He said a female friend told him decades ago that she had been raped by a man who was black.

Play Video 2:21 Liam Neeson reveals he wanted to kill a black person following rape of friend – audio

Neeson told the newspaper he had spent “maybe a week” walking near pubs with a heavy stick and “hoping some ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could … kill him.”

The Independent said Neeson put air quotes around the term “black bastard”. The newspaper posted audio from the interview on its website.

Liam Neeson’s interview shows that for some, black people are still not fully human | Gary Younge Read more

On Tuesday, Neeson told GMA that he had felt a “primal urge to lash out” at the time.

“I went out deliberately into black areas in the city, looking to be set upon,” he said. “It shocked me and it hurt me … I did seek help, I went to a priest.”

Neeson said no violence occurred. He said he would have been looking for a white man if his friend had identified her attacker as white.

“It was horrible, horrible when I think back, that I did that,” Neeson said on GMA. “It’s awful, but I did learn a lesson from it.”