Liam Neeson Breaks Silence On Independent Interview Controversy, Insisting He’s ‘Not Racist’

He also maintained he’d “definitely” have had the same reaction were the rapist not black, claiming: “If she’d have said an Irishman or a Scot or a Brit or a Lithuanian, I know it’d have had the same effect. I was trying to show honour and stand up for my dear friend in this terrible medieval fashion.

“I’m an intelligent guy and that’s why it shocked me when I came down to earth. Luckily, no violence occurred, ever. Thanks be to god.”

When asked what he hoped to get from him speaking out, Liam said: “To talk openly about these things. We all pretend we’re all politically correct, in this country, and it’s the same in my own country. Sometimes you just scratch the surface and discover racism and bigotry, and it’s there.

“I remember when we were shooting Schindler’s List in Poland 25 years ago, hearing remarks from drivers taking us to set, and thinking ’am I hearing this right? This guy is making anti-Jewish comments and I’m in the back of the car, playing Oskar Schindler’.”

Host Robin Roberts then asked what the “teachable moment” of the controversy would be, to which he invited her to share her thoughts.

“The one point I want to make out – and this wasn’t found out, you admitted this, this isn’t a gotcha,” she explained. “But having to acknowledge the hurt, even though it was decades ago, but an innocent black man could have been killed because of the colour of his skin.”

To this Liam responded: “They could have killed me too.”

“Violence breeds violence,” Liam concluded, “And bigotry breeds bigotry”, before adding: “See the movie, by the way, it’s a good movie.”