General Liam Neeson support thread

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Sheepdog

Sheepdog

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Sign in here if you think Liam Neeson said nothing wrong.
 
SongExotic2

SongExotic2

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I think he's a fucken idiot.

No wonder he diddnt get on the Jedi council
 
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Liam Neeson interview: Rape, race and how I learnt revenge doesn’t work
Exclusive: Sitting down with Clémence Michallon to discuss his latest action film ‘Cold Pursuit’, the actor recounts a disturbing incident from his past


@Clemence_Mcl
5 days ago
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The Independent Culture
Liam Neeson is sitting in an armchair with a flask of tea at his side. We are in the sprawling suite of a Manhattan hotel to talk about his latest film, Cold Pursuit. Just as he has in a number of roles since he became an action hero in his fifties, Neeson plays an everyman hell-bent on revenge. Yet here in the rigid, conveyor-belt atmosphere of the celebrity junket, the 66-year-old star of Taken is about to recount a disturbing incident from his past, a confession that he’s never made before. It will involve how he learnt about the rape of someone close to him many years ago, how he roamed the streets for a week afterwards carrying with him a cosh and brutal, racist thoughts, and how this taught him that violence and revenge do not work.

It begins as an explanation of how his latest character turns to anger. “There’s something primal – God forbid you’ve ever had a member of your family hurt under criminal conditions,” he begins, hesitantly but thoughtfully. “I’ll tell you a story. This is true.”


It was some time ago. Neeson had just come back from overseas to find out about the rape. “She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way,” Neeson says. “But my immediate reaction was…” There’s a pause. “I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person.

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“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 [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could,” another pause, “kill him.”

Neeson clearly knows what he’s saying, and how shocking it is, how appalling. “It took me a week, maybe 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.’ You know? ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘No no, nothing’s wrong.’”




He deliberately withholds details to protect the identity of the victim. “It was horrible, horrible, when I think back, that I did that,” he says. “And I’ve never admitted that, and I’m saying it to a journalist. God forbid.”


“Holy shit,” says Tom Bateman, his co-star, who is sitting beside him.

“It’s awful,” Neeson continues, a tremble in his breath. “But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the fuck are you doing,’ you know?”

liam-neeson-cold-pursuit.jpg
Neeson seeks revenge against the drug dealers that killed his son in ‘Cold Pursuit’ (Lionsgate)
All three of us know – Neeson, Bateman and I – that this is a distressing admission. “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, 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
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Liam recounts a long ago incident in which someone close to him was raped and he wanted revenge and his mind went to a biased and racist place. He then tells how he is ashamed of that but that he understands the primal nature of violence and revenge. He's not endorsing it. In fact he's talking about the very primal response and his much more mature and civilized look at how wrong that response is.

Imo he said nothing wrong.

He didn't glorify, justify, or anything... He says, "wtf happened to me in that rage?!?!"
 
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Lily Allen...
Lily later branded Neeson a 'disgusting racist' on Instagram, adding that she believes his anecdote that sparked the controversy wasn't even true.

'I don't believe Liam Neeson's racist anecdote, which makes it even more disgusting,' she wrote.

'I don't know a woman who hasn't been harassed and I have never heard of an instance where a man has actually gone out to defend her honour. It just doesn’t happen.'
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Regina King...

In a follow-up interview on Good Morning America, Neeson said that if his close friend had said she'd been raped by "a Brit, a Scot [or] a Lithuanian", he "would have reacted the same". Referencing this, Regina King said: “If that was the case, you wouldn’t have addressed it as 'a black man.' It would have just been a man. He specifically had to put a race on it, so that’s unfortunate.”
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I feel like people arent getting that Liam stated the wrongness in his response that the response was directed in an ignorant and primal way at a group by an individual. I think she doesn't get that in Europe, responding that you're gonna go hunt a Brit/Romanian/etc. might very well be an out group. Such group blame is common and it seems strange to assume ethnic and racial tensions in Europe just disappear if the person isnt black. Also, that she would be understanding of his rage and shame if he was hunting white pikeys but...

I believe Liam's response would have been the same...as long as it wasn't an north irish guy like him. The entire point is that we look for outgroups and punish collectively...and how wrong that is.
 
Jesus X

Jesus X

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the craziest part of this story was that there was a black rapist in ireland in what I assume was the 70's, must have been pretty easy for cops to find a black rapist in ireland,conversely this probably got the second black man living in ireland in the 70's arrested by accident .
 
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On Thursday, Crews went on to explain to ET, "I’m a black man! I’ve been hunted. How in the world could you even construe that as a pass?”

The actor noted that he’s had opportunities in life to make the wrong choice as well, saying, “There have been many, many times I’ve come very, very close to not being here. I’m from Flint, Michigan. I could be in jail. I could be dead, and I took the other road. But that’s the point I was making. Does it excuse him? Not at all. But the fact is that he didn’

"I am a black man in America. I’ve been a target. I’ve been assaulted. It’s one of those things where I would never, ever have any kind of patience for that,” he said. "But this is the deal too, it’s that forgiveness and accountability go hand in hand
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Jesus X said:
learned something new. him walking around with a weapon makes this a little more disturbing.

cosh
/käSH/
INFORMAL•BRITISH
noun
  1. 1.
    a thick heavy stick or bar used as a weapon; a bludgeon.
verb
  1. 1.
    hit (someone) on the head with a cosh.
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It's super disturbing. It's bad behavior. It's racist thoughts. It's also temporary rage related to a personal violence, not justified or supported by the guy a long time later.

A black guy wanting to kill white cops then saying the same stuff. "Wtf was I doing. But I get why people seek revenge and that primal response."

Anyone...Id totally get it.

In the moment I think you'd have to tell the person they are wrong, they are being racist, etc. If he had acted on it he'd have to go to jail.

Later? When that person is confronting their own thoughts speaking how they are wrong? Then we are going to jump up and down at him being a racist forever while he says his thoughts were wrong?
 
Hauler

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Feb 3, 2016
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I'm a bit surprised that Neeson wasn't smart enough to know this wouldn't be received well.

We have politicians getting crucified for dressing up in blackface back in the 70s. Neeson is admitting to having intentions to commit a hate crime against any black guy that looked at him the wrong way. Way worse, imo.
 
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Splinty said:
It's super disturbing. It's bad behavior. It's racist thoughts. It's also temporary rage related to a personal violence, not justified or supported by the guy a long time later.

A black guy wanting to kill white cops then saying the same stuff. "Wtf was I doing. But I get why people seek revenge and that primal response."

Anyone...Id totally get it.

In the moment I think you'd have to tell the person they are wrong, they are being racist, etc. If he had acted on it he'd have to go to jail.

Later? When that person is confronting their own thoughts speaking how they are wrong? Then we are going to jump up and down at him being a racist forever while he says his thoughts were wrong?
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Chiropractic medicine would have fixed him
 
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