Liam Neeson attended the Madrid premiere of Cold Pursuit on Monday night, five months after the film’s red carpet in New York was axed amid his racism row.
The actor, who looked dapper in a grey suit, brushed off the backlash as he joined his castmates for the Spanish premiere at the Capitol Cinema.
Back in February, the actor, 67, sparked fury during a promotional interview for the film, where he revealed he had an urge to murder a black person after his friend told him she’d been raped by a man of the same race.
Red carpet: Liam Neeson attended the Madrid premiere of Cold Pursuit on Monday night, five months after the film’s red carpet in New York was axed amid his racism row
The film, which is about a father’s quest for revenge against a drug baron after his son is killed, will air in Spanish cinemas from the 26 July.
The New York premiere was axed after Liam caused a racism storm when he revealed he had sought help from a Catholic priest after spending a week prowling the streets with a cosh to murder a ‘black b*****d’.
Liam Neeson wanted ‘to kill’ a black person after friend was raped
Racism row: Liam, who looked dapper in a grey suit, brushed off the backlash as he joined his castmates for the Spanish premiere at the Capitol Cinema
Apologising on Good Morning America, Neeson said he ‘understood’ the hurt his words had caused but insisted: ‘I’m not racist, this was 40 years ago. I had a primal urge. I was trying to show honor for a friend I dearly loved, in a medieval fashion’.
The star said he had gone to church when he became ‘scared’ and realised he had wanted to ‘unleash’ murder on a stranger for his friend, who he said died five years ago.
He said: ‘I did seek help. I went to a priest, who heard my confession’ and also later confided in two friends and would go out powerwalking for ‘two hours a day to get this [anger] out of me’.
GMA host Robins Roberts asked him if he ‘understood the pain of a black person’ hearing his words.
Premiere: Liam gave a small smile to the cameras as he posed on the red carpet before heading inside the cinema with filmmaker Hans Petter Moland
He replied: ‘Absolutely, you’re absolutely right. And at the time, even though this was nearly 40 years ago, I didn’t think about that.
It was this primal hatred, I guess, that really shocked me, when I eventually came down to earth and saw what I was doing, looking for a fight’.
When asked how he would feel if his unnamed friend’s attacker was white he said: ‘If he was Irish, a Scot or Brit or a Lithuanian. I know I would have had the same reaction’.
Describing what motivated him to try to attack a black man he told GMA: ‘Nearly 40 years ago when a very dear friend of mine was brutally raped and I was out of the country and when I came back she told me about it.
Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid clash over Liam Neeson racism row
‘I had never felt this feeling before, which was a primal urge to lash out.
I asked her did she know the person, and his race. She said he was a black man.
‘I thought ok and after that there were some nights I went out deliberately into black areas in the city, looking to be set upon so that I could unleash physical violence.
‘I did it for say, maybe four or five times until I caught myself and it really shocked me, this primal urge.
It shocked me and it hurt me. Luckily no violence occurred’.
New role: During an interview with the Independent to promote his new film Cold Pursuit (pictured), the actor, described how he walked the streets looking for a ‘black b*****d’ to kill
