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​Piers Morgan Slams Liam Neeson For Recent Race-Related Comments

​Piers Morgan Slams Liam Neeson For Recent Race-Related Comments

Saying his comments were ‘like Ku Klux Klan stuff’, Morgan compared Neeson’s situation to that of Mel Gibson

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

Piers Morgan has slammed Liam Neeson for a recent controversial interview, in which the actor admitted he was once hoping to find a 'black bastard' to kill, following the rape of someone close to him.

Saying his comments were 'like Ku Klux Klan stuff', Morgan compared Neeson's situation to that of Mel Gibson, who was shunned by Hollywood in 2004 after being accused of making anti-semitic comments.

Morgan said: "The only parallel I can think of is Mel Gibson who said some horrendous things to his Russian girlfriend or wife at the time. He was very racist when he said it.

"The only difference here with Liam Neeson is he's talking about himself and his own thought process, which was for an entire week - not a moment of madness, but a seven-day rampage around the streets, waiting to for any black person to say the wrong thing so he could kill him.

"I can't think of anything more staggering that's come out of a movie star's mouth. I would be very surprised if Liam Neeson's career is not now in very serious trouble."

Liam Neeson.
PA

He continued: "If I was a black person, I would not want to see this guy's movies. So racist."

Morgan also said he couldn't understand what possessed Neeson to share the story, he added: "It's like Ku Klux Klan stuff."

In a recent interview with the Independent, Neeson had explained one of his close friends was once raped.

He said: "My immediate reaction was... I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person.

"I 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 [uses air quotes with fingers] 'black bastard' would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him."

Clemence Michallon, who conducted the interview with Neeson, also appeared on this morning's Good Morning Britain, where he said: "You do not go into a movie press junket expecting to hear that story. What I felt immediately was a strong sense of responsibility and duty to tell the story sensitively."

Andi Peters also said Liam's career should be over during the programme.
ITV

Neeson had volunteered the story, according to Michallon. who explained: "He decided to tell this story that had been apparently weighing on him for a very long time."

Addressing her reporting, the interviewer said: "It wasn't a question of lightening what he said in any way."

When asked whether she felt his career should bounce back, Michallon said it was perhaps 'too early too call'.

She said: "People have reacted with obviously a lot of shock and outrage and we're not surprised by this - the shock is justified.

"Liam is very stunned by his own thought process. Whether or not it's career-ending, I think it's up to the studios and moviegoers to tell.

"He's not the first actor [to say something controversial]."

Featured Image Credit: ITV

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Celebrity, News, UK, Piers Morgan

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