Los Angeles - The New York celebrity red
carpet event on Tuesday for actor Liam Neeson's new film "Cold
Pursuit" has been cancelled in the wake of an interview in which
Neeson said he wanted to kill a black man in response to the
rape of a friend who said her attacker was black.
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 U.S. premiere for the movie, in which Neeson plays a man
seeking revenge for his son's killers, will still go ahead on
Tuesday.
Responding to the backlash his comments had drawn, the
66-year-old Irish star told the U.S. television network ABC's
"Good Morning America" on Tuesday that "I'm not a racist."
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.
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.
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."