Batman Begins star Liam Neeson is facing backlash after sharing a racist revenge story, ET reports.
A growing number of social media users are saying the Taken actor is "cancelled" after comments made in an interview with The Independent promoting his newest movie — Cold Pursuit, a revenge action-drama — where Neeson recalled wanting revenge after a female loved one alleged she was raped.
"There's something primal — God forbid you've ever had a member of your family hurt under criminal conditions. I'll tell you a story, this is true," Neeson said of returning from overseas "some time ago" when he learned of the assault.
"She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way. But my immediate reaction was... I asked, did she know who it was? No. 'What color were they?' She said it was a black person."
He added he 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 'black bastard' would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could... kill him," Neeson continued, explaining it took around a week and a half to "go through that."
"She would say, 'Where are you going?' and I would say, 'I'm just going out for a walk,'" Neeson said. "'What's wrong?' 'No no, nothing's wrong.'
"It was horrible, horrible, when I think back, that I did that. And I've never admitted that, and I'm saying it to a journalist. God forbid."
Adding his response was "awful," Neeson said he eventually came around, adding, "When I eventually thought, 'What the f— are you doing?'"
"I come from a society — I grew up in Northern Ireland in the Troubles — and, you know, I knew a couple of guys that died on hunger strike, and I had acquaintances who were very caught up in the Troubles, and I understand that need for revenge," he said.
"But it just leads to more revenge, to more killing and more killing, and Northern Ireland's proof of that. All this stuff that's happening in the world, the violence, is proof of that, you know. But that primal need, I understand."
"Liam Neeson being ready to take any Black life over what one person allegedly did just shows how meaningless and inconsequential black lives are to some," tweeted Frederick Joseph in response to the story.
"So I guess Liam Neeson just publicly admitted he's racist, huh," tweeted Trey Taylor.
Jemele Hill tweeted Neeson is "today's example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory."