Actor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/liam-neeson">Liam Neeson</a> said he was offered the chance to play <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/james-bond">James Bond</a> back in the 1990s, but he turned it down when his wife gave him an &#8220;ultimatum.&#8221;
The 70-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/movies">actor</a> recalled how producer Barbara Broccoli reached out to him several times regarding the role just after Neeson was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Oskar Schindler in “Schindler’s List” (1993). But the Hollywood star explained how love trumped career in this case.
“I know the Broccolis. They looked at a bunch of actors,” Neeson <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/liam-neeson-has-some-regrets-marlowe-atlanta-the-view-james-bond-superhero-movies-1234680950/">told</a> Rolling Stone during an interview published on February 20. 
“‘Schindler’s List’ had come out and Barbara [Broccoli] had called me a couple of times to ask if I was interested, and I said, ‘Yes, I would be interested.’ And then my lovely wife [Natasha Richardson], God rest her soul, said to me while we were shooting ‘Nell’ down in the Carolinas, ‘Liam, I want to tell you something: If you play James Bond, we’re not getting married.&#8217;”
The actor said he would tease Richardson by “going behind her back, making my fingers as though I’m holding a gun, and [humming the James Bond theme].” 
“I loved doing that s***!” he said about poking fun at his wife, who died in 2009 due to a head injury while skiing.
“She gave me a James Bond ultimatum,” Neeson recalled of turning down the part. “And she meant it! Come on, there’s all those gorgeous girls in various countries getting into bed and getting out of bed. I’m sure a lot of her decision-making was based on that!”
Though the actor never took a turn portraying Bond, he did make a name for himself in the action series “Taken,” which brought Neeson a huge amount of recognition in the genre.
In the movie, Neeson threatens his daughter’s kidnappers by saying, “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don’t have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you.”
The actor recently discussed how he initially found his well-known speech in the 2008 film “corny.”
“I certainly did sound scary, but I thought it was corny,” Neeson <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/02/liam-neeson-100-movies-marlowe">told</a> Vanity Fair during a February interview. “It was a cornball. I really did feel that. It’s nice to be proven wrong.”
The speech has become one of the most quoted in recent movie history.

“Non-Stop” – Los Angeles Premiere

Liam Neeson Explains Turning Down James Bond Role For Wife: If You Play 007, ‘We’re Not Getting Married’

Liam Neeson Explains Turning Down James Bond Role For Wife

Celebrities

Entertainment

Hollywood

James Bond

Liam Neeson

World

Actor <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/liam-neeson-makes-cameo-on-atlanta-apologizes-for-hurting-people-with-racist-comment-from-2019/">Liam Neeson</a> admitted during a recent interview that he was not a fan of his own appearance on ABC&#8217;s midday talk show &#8220;The View,&#8221; complaining that most of the segment had been wasted on co-host <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/youre-gonna-you-could-die-joy-behar-claims-booster-is-the-only-reason-whoopi-survived-covid-twice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joy Behar&#8217;s</a> crush on him.
The Irish actor appeared on the February 15th broadcast, and after a brief conversation about his new movie, &#8220;Marlowe,&#8221; the topic turned to Behar&#8217;s long-standing crush on the &#8220;Taken&#8221; star.
Noting that she had gotten a belated Valentine&#8217;s Day card from the actor before the show, Behar said that she had been disappointed to learn that he had given similar cards to her co-hosts as well. The segment concluded with nearly a full minute of past video clips of Behar fawning over Neeson.
WATCH:
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Liam Neeson — our Joy Behar&#39;s favorite actor — tells us about his new movie <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Marlowe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Marlowe</a> and we look back on Joy&#39;s well-documented admiration for him! 🤣 <a href="https://t.co/cVclFZQU98">https://t.co/cVclFZQU98</a> <a href="https://t.co/xXlrLNyYH1">pic.twitter.com/xXlrLNyYH1</a>
&mdash; The View (@TheView) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheView/status/1625993360828948481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Neeson <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/liam-neeson-has-some-regrets-marlowe-atlanta-the-view-james-bond-superhero-movies-1234680950/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Rolling Stone</a> that he had been looking forward to talking about the film — and had been intrigued by the gun control conversation that was going on during the segment prior to his — but was disappointed and &#8220;not impressed&#8221; when nearly all of his time was taken up by Behar gushing over him.
&#8220;I was in the dressing room drinking a cup of tea, turned the TV up, and I thought, oh, this will be great. They’re talking about gun violence in America, and I agree that it’s an American problem,&#8221; Neeson said, adding, &#8220;I go onstage and join the ladies during the break, and I was congratulating them on this discussion.&#8221;
&#8220;And then our segment starts and it’s just all this BS,&#8221; Neeson continued, saying that the entire situation — with Behar fawning over him and the others cheering her on — had made for an awkward segment as far as he was concerned.
&#8220;I’ve known Whoopi for years and Joy a little bit, but I just wasn’t impressed. I’m uncomfortable in those situations, you know?&#8221; he continued. &#8220;One of the ladies [Sunny Hostin] is a prosecutor and we had a little chat afterward and it was a good, intelligent conversation, but then the segment’s all about this — oof —thirteen, fourteen-year-old crush. It’s just a bit embarrassing.&#8221;
&nbsp;

TODAY – Season 72

‘A Bit Embarrassing’: Hollywood A-Lister Says He ‘Wasn’t Impressed’ By The Ladies At ‘The View’

Liam Neeson Says He 'Wasn't Impressed' By The Ladies At 'The View'

Gun Control

Joy Behar

The View

U.S.

Actor Liam Neeson made a surprise cameo on &#8220;Atlanta&#8221; and apologized for &#8220;hurting people&#8221; with a racist comment he made in 2019.
The 69-year-old actor showed up on the eighth episode of the show&#8217;s fourth season, titled &#8220;New Jazz,&#8221; playing a fictional version of himself while sitting in a bar talking to one of the main characters Alfred &#8220;Paper Boi&#8221; Miles (played Brian Tyree Henry) about comments he made during an interview he gave in 2019 to <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2019/02/liam-neeson-responds-racist-revenge-black-man-rape-1202041303/">The Independent</a>, <a href="https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/liam-neeson-atlanta-racism-backlash-1235260511/">reported</a> Variety in a piece published Friday.
At the time, the &#8220;Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace&#8221; star talked about what happened 40 years ago when a friend of his was raped and he &#8220;went up and down areas with a cosh&#8221; for &#8220;maybe a week&#8221; hoping &#8220;some Black b****** would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something &#8230; so that I could kill him.&#8221; He admitted at the time he was &#8220;ashamed to say that.&#8221;
&#8220;You might&#8217;ve heard or read about my transgression,&#8221; Neeson&#8217;s character tells Paper Boi in the show this week. &#8220;You know, what I said about what I wanted to do to a black guy, any black guy, when I was a younger man in London. A friend of mine had been raped and I acted out of anger.&#8221;
&#8220;I look back now and it honestly frightens me,&#8221; he adds. &#8220;I thought people knowing who I once was would make clear who I am, who I&#8217;ve become. But with all that being said, I am sorry. I apologize if I hurt people.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s good to know that you don&#8217;t hate black people now,&#8221; Miles responds.
WATCH:
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<a href="https://t.co/zVLjVtzz0Y">pic.twitter.com/zVLjVtzz0Y</a>
&mdash; v (@ViralMaterial) <a href="https://twitter.com/ViralMaterial/status/1522561486882844673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;No, no I can&#8217;t stand the lot of you,&#8221; Neeson&#8217;s character replies. &#8220;Well, now I feel that way because you tried to ruin my career. Didn&#8217;t succeed, mind you. However, I&#8217;m sure one day I will get over it, but until then, we are mortal enemies.”
Paper Boi then asks Neeson if he had learned &#8220;you shouldn&#8217;t say s*** like that?&#8221;
&#8220;Aye,&#8221; the &#8220;Taken&#8221; star&#8217;s character replies. &#8220;But I also learned that the best and worst part about being white is, we don&#8217;t have to learn anything if we don&#8217;t want to. Take it easy, Paper Boi.&#8221;
After the Independent interview surfaced, the &#8220;Blacklight&#8221; star clarified his remarks in 2019 during his appearance on &#8220;<a href="https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/liam-neeson-clarifies-controversial-revenge-remarks-im-racist-60849164">Good Morning America</a>.&#8221; He explained at the time that he&#8217;s not a &#8220;racist&#8221; and &#8220;definitely&#8221; would&#8217;ve had the same reaction if the person was white.
&#8220;I was trying to show honor, to stand up for my dear friend in this terrible medieval fashion,&#8221; Neeson said at the time. &#8220;I am a fairly intelligent guy. That&#8217;s why it kind of shocked me when I came down to earth after having these terrible feelings. Luckily, no violence occurred. I did want to lash out because my friend was brutally raped and I was defending her honor. It was a learning curve.&#8221;

Liam Neeson-2

Liam Neeson Makes Cameo On ‘Atlanta,’ Apologizes For ‘Hurting People’ With Racist Comment From 2019

Liam Neeson Appears On 'Atlanta,' Apologizes For 'Hurting People' With Racist Comment

Racism

On TNT&#8217;s &#8220;Halftime Report&#8221; Thursday night, co-host Charles Barkley left co-host Shaquille O&#8217;Neal pleading with him to stop after Barkley&#8217;s comments on the Jussie Smollett fiasco had O&#8217;Neal practically gasping for air from laughing so hard. Barkley referenced the evidence that Smollett <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43769/police-say-jussie-smollett-wrote-check-brothers-he-amanda-prestigiacomo">had written a check</a> to the two Nigerian brothers allegedly involved in the attack on him as well as actor Liam Neeson&#8217;s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/liam-neeson-says-he-s-not-racist-after-looking-black-n966976">admission</a> that years ago he had gone looking for a black man to hurt after a friend of his alleged she had been raped by a black man.
The segment starts with co-host Ernie Johnson posting one more post-it note on a wall filled with the team&#8217;s various predictions.
Co-host Kenny Smith asks: Ernie, what&#8217;s the most ridiculous one over there that&#8217;s still living that you would say has no chance of happening?
Barkley answers from the host&#8217;s table: Two black guys beating a black guy up.
That triggers Shaq to start cracking up.
The camera shows a close-up of the wall; one note reads: &#8220;Chuck: 11/1. The Blazers will have a better record than the Pelicans.&#8221; Another reads, &#8220;11-29-18. Chuck: The Clippers will not make the playoffs.&#8221;
Smith: That&#8217;s uh &#8230; that&#8217;s not on here, man.
Johnson, trying to keep the segment on track: Uh, the Clippers, well, the Clippers will not make the playoffs, and uh &#8212;
Shaq, laughing: What kind of hat, Chuck?
Barkley: MAGAS. MAGA hat. MAGA&#8217;s hat.
As the camera shows a close-up of some of the post-it notes and Johnson returning from the wall, Johnson, still attempting to keep the show on track, says, &#8220;I think that&#8217;s probably &#8212; I think that&#8217;s probably it. Okay. The Lakers will not make the playoffs; the Kings will, is the latest position. Go ahead, Kenny. I can&#8217;t believe you, Chuck.&#8221;
Shaq: You saying, you saying we can&#8217;t write &#8216;em a check, Chuck? (He starts laughing hard again.)
Barkley: America. America, let me just tell you something.
Smith: What&#8217;s that?
Barkley: Do not commit crimes with checks &#8212; (Shaq loses it again) C&#8217;mon, man, If you&#8217;re going to break the law, do not write a check. (Shaq is laughing so hard he&#8217;s throwing his head back)
Smith: Cause if you&#8217;re writing a check, then what?
Shaq, laughing hard: Cash up.
Barkley: Cash, man. I never used an ATM. Now, I heard you can only get $200 out of it.
Shaq, exhausted from laughing: Charles &#8212;
Barkley: $500?
Shaq: Charles. Stop. Literally.
Barkley: You gonna make a lot of stops at an ATM?
Shaq, laughing: But you said, Chuck, America, America. (The screen shows a picture of Smollett smiling) Do not write a check when you commit illegal activity.
Johnson: I cannot believe that we completed &#8212; (Using a baseball reference) We touched &#8217;em all, right there. Circle the bags. Touch every pillow.
Smith: He just said the Lakers would make the playoffs.
Barkley, repeating as the picture of Smollett is flashed on the screen: America, don&#8217;t commit crimes with a check. There&#8217;s Jussie; you wasted all that time and money. You know what you should have did? Just went up in Liam Neeson&#8217;s neighborhood. He could have solved all your damn problems.
Video below:
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Charles Barkley teaches America the correct way to commit a crime <a href="https://t.co/Y1mMvXx4Fy">pic.twitter.com/Y1mMvXx4Fy</a>
&#8212; Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) <a href="https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/1098814339014897664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
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WATCH: Charles Barkley Leaves Shaq Begging Him To Stop As He Hilariously Targets Smollett

Charles Barkley

Jussie Smollett

Shaquille O'Neal

The pushback to actor Liam Neeson has continued to grow ever since he admitted to once having had dark thoughts about killing a black man in retaliation for a loved one&#8217;s rape. Now, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/liam-neeson-fans-call-for-him-to-be-digitally-removed-from-men-in-black-international-after-racist-comments">Fox News reports</a> that people on social media are demanding he be digitally removed from the upcoming &#8220;Men In Black: International&#8221; movie, a reboot of the Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones action-comedy from 1997.
&#8220;I really hope it&#8217;s not too late to digitally erase that racist f&#8212; Liam Neeson from the new Men In Black movie,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/fakecult/status/1092537106285486080" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one Twitter user wrote</a>.
&#8220;Was really excited for Men in Black: International with @chrishemsworth &amp; @TessaThompson_x. Was 1 of my most anticapated [sic] films for 2019. Hated his casting before the horrifying controversy, but now really hope it&#8217;s not too late to digitally erase racist f&#8212; Liam Neeson from it,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyShannon2/status/1092887253104410625" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">another said</a>.
The upcoming &#8220;Men In Black&#8221; film will feature Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth in the starring roles; Liam Neeson will be playing a high-ranking agent in the same vein as Rip Torn&#8217;s character from the 1997 original. Calls for the Irish actor&#8217;s banishment from the hit franchise erupted after an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43034/liam-neeson-reveals-he-had-violent-thoughts-about-paul-bois">interview he gave with The Independent</a> went viral, during which he opened up about some dark demons he wrestled with 40 years ago upon learning of a loved one&#8217;s rape.
&#8220;She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way,&#8221; Neeson said. &#8220;I asked, did she know who it was? No. What color were they? She said it was a black person. I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I&#8217;d be approached by somebody &#8212; I&#8217;m ashamed to say that &#8212; and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] &#8216;black bastard&#8217; would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could [pause] kill him.&#8221;
Speaking with &#8220;Good Morning America&#8221; on Tuesday in response to the outrage on social media, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/liam-neeson-says-im-not-racist-after-backlash-to-confession-he-wanted-to-kill-a-black-man-after-close-friends-rape">Neeson said</a> his comments about past violent thoughts were in response to questions on how he tapped into the primal rage of his current role in &#8220;Cold Pursuit,&#8221; a revenge-rush action film in the same vein as &#8220;Taken.&#8221;
&#8220;We were doing a press junket and the topic of our film was revenge,&#8221; Neeson said. &#8220;The lady journalist was asking, &#8216;How do you tap into that?,&#8217; and I remembered an incident nearly 40 years ago when a friend of mine was brutally raped. I was out of the country and when I came back she told me about this &#8230; I had never felt this feeling before, which was a primal urge to lash out.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m not racist,&#8221; Neeson said. &#8220;This was nearly 40 years ago. I was brought up in Northern Ireland &#8230; there was a war going on, and I had acquaintances who were involved in the troubles, in the bigotry &#8230; I grew up surrounded by that. I was part of it.&#8221;
Yet the social media backlash has continued unabated.
&#8220;You can literally hear Liam Neeson evaporating from all the upcoming Men in Black International marketing,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/OhThatsJustRich/status/1092932812263411712" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote another</a> Twitter user.
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You can literally hear Liam Neeson evaporating from all the upcoming Men in Black International marketing.
&#8212; C-Sleepio (@OhThatsJustRich) <a href="https://twitter.com/OhThatsJustRich/status/1092932812263411712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;@MenInBlack boycott Men In Black the gutless coward Liam Neeson said he was walking around looking to kill an innocent black man who had nothing to do with his personal issues he&#8217;s a gutless coward and a racist bigot boycott Men in Black,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/DennGrey/status/1092555735521812481" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said another</a>.
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<a href="https://twitter.com/MenInBlack?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MenInBlack</a> boycott Men In Black the gutless coward Liam Neeson said he was walking around looking to kill an innocent black man who had nothing to do with his personal issues he&#8217;s a gutless coward and a racist bigot boycott Men in Black
&#8212; Denn Grey (@DennGrey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DennGrey/status/1092555735521812481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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During the interview with &#8220;Good Morning America,&#8221; Neeson said that had the perpetrator of rape been any other race, he would have had the same thoughts about killing a member of that ethnic community.
&#8220;If she said [the rapist was] Irish, a Scot, a Lithuanian, [it] would have had the same effect,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I was trying to show honor and stand up for my dear friend in this horrible medieval fashion &#8230; Thankfully no violence occurred ever.&#8221;

Now People Want Liam Neeson Scrubbed From ‘Men In Black: International’

Race

After sparking an intense backlash by revealing he once <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43034/liam-neeson-reveals-he-had-violent-thoughts-about-paul-bois">had private thoughts about killing a black man</a> after a loved one had been raped nearly 40 years ago, actor Liam Neeson has hit the morning shows to clarify that he is not a racist.
In a viral interview with <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/liam-neeson-interview-rape-race-black-man-revenge-taken-cold-pursuit-a8760896.html">The Independent</a>, the 66-year-old actor revealed dark thoughts he had once held in the past following the rape of a loved one.
&#8220;She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way,&#8221; Neeson said. &#8220;I asked, did she know who it was? No. What color were they? She said it was a black person. I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I&#8217;d be approached by somebody &#8212; I&#8217;m ashamed to say that &#8212; and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] &#8216;black bastard&#8217; would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could [pause] kill him.&#8221;
Speaking with &#8220;Good Morning America&#8221; on Tuesday in response to the outrage on social media, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/liam-neeson-says-im-not-racist-after-backlash-to-confession-he-wanted-to-kill-a-black-man-after-close-friends-rape">Neeson said</a> his comments about past violent thoughts were in response to questions on how he tapped into the primal rage of his current role in &#8220;Cold Pursuit,&#8221; yet another revenge-rush action film in the same vein as &#8220;Taken.&#8221;
&#8220;We were doing a press junket and the topic of our film was revenge,&#8221; Neeson said. &#8220;The lady journalist was asking, &#8216;How do you tap into that?,&#8217; and I remembered an incident nearly 40 years ago when a friend of mine was brutally raped. I was out of the country and when I came back she told me about this &#8230; I had never felt this feeling before, which was a primal urge to lash out.&#8221;
Neeson continued: &#8220;I went out deliberately into black areas in the city looking to be set upon so I could unleash physical violence. I did it maybe four or five times until I caught myself, and it really shocked me &#8212; this primal urge I had. It shocked me and it hurt me.&#8221;
Neeson revealed that he overcame his rage with help from good friends and a priest. He also clarified that his &#8220;death wish&#8221; fantasy happened nearly 40 years ago and was influenced in part by the warfare happening in Northern Ireland at the time.
&#8220;I&#8217;m not racist,&#8221; Neeson said. &#8220;This was nearly 40 years ago. I was brought up in Northern Ireland &#8230; there was a war going on, and I had acquaintances who were involved in the troubles, in the bigotry &#8230; I grew up surrounded by that. I was part of it.&#8221;
Neeson said that had the perpetrator of rape been any other race, he would have had the same thoughts about killing a member of that ethnic community.
&#8220;If she said [the rapist was] Irish, a Scot, a Lithuanian, [it] would have had the same effect,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I was trying to show honor and stand up for my dear friend in this horrible medieval fashion &#8230; Thankfully no violence occurred ever.&#8221;
Admitting he would have done violence unto someone had he not grappled with his rage in a healthy way, Neeson said that people need to learn to talk openly about what they experience in the dark corners of their mind.
&#8220;Talk, open up. Talk about these things,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We all pretend we&#8217;re all politically correct. In this country, sometimes you just scratch the surface and you discover this racism, this bigotry, and it&#8217;s there,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;Good Morning America&#8221; host Robin Roberts commended Neeson for admitting his past inner conflicts rather than having it revealed via third-party. Simultaneously, she asked him to understand the pain a black man might feel upon hearing what he said.
&#8220;We have to own up &#8230; This wasn&#8217;t discovered by somebody. You admitted this. This wasn&#8217;t a &#8216;gotcha,&#8217; so I give you credit there,&#8221; Roberts. &#8220;You have to acknowledge the hurt of an innocent black man who could have been killed or hurt &#8230; You have to also understand the pain of a black person hearing what you said.&#8221;
&#8220;At the time, even though it was nearly 40 years ago, I didn&#8217;t think of it,&#8221; Neeson said. &#8220;All those things surprised me. It was this primal hatred &#8230; It shook me &#8230; Violence breeds violence. Bigotry breeds bigotry.&#8221;
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zb8KEpkCdRo" width="560"></iframe></div>

WATCH: Liam Neeson Responds To Backlash Over Confessed Past Thoughts: ‘I’m Not Racist’

&#8220;Schindler&#8217;s List&#8221; actor Liam Neeson sparked a load of controversy during a recent interview in which he revealed he had entertained violent thoughts about killing a black man after an unnamed loved one had been allegedly raped by a black man.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/liam-neeson-interview-rape-race-black-man-revenge-taken-cold-pursuit-a8760896.html">The Independent</a>, the 66-year-old actor who became an action star with the box-office hit &#8220;Taken&#8221; opened up about several dark thoughts he held in the past following the rape of his loved one.
&#8220;There&#8217;s something primal &#8211; God forbid you&#8217;ve ever had a member of your family hurt under criminal conditions,&#8221; Neeson began as he recounted his story.
The rape against this loved one allegedly happened while he was overseas. When he returned to learn of the rape, he recalled the many horrific thoughts that went through his mind and how he donned an almost Charles Bronson &#8220;Death Wish&#8221; persona to make up for it.
&#8220;She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way,&#8221; Neeson said. &#8220;I asked, did she know who it was? No. What color were they? She said it was a black person.&#8221;
Neeson continued, &#8220;I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I&#8217;d be approached by somebody &#8211; I&#8217;m ashamed to say that &#8211; and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] &#8216;black bastard&#8217; would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could [pause] kill him.&#8221;
Liam Neeson regrets having held these thoughts, denouncing them as a horrible product of his distress. &#8220;It took me a week, maybe a week and a half, to go through that. She would say, &#8216;Where are you going?&#8217; and I would say, &#8216;I&#8217;m just going out for a walk.&#8217; You know? &#8216;What&#8217;s wrong?&#8217; &#8216;No no, nothing&#8217;s wrong,'&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was horrible, horrible, when I think back, that I did that. And I&#8217;ve never admitted that, and I&#8217;m saying it to a journalist. God forbid.&#8221;
The greatest lesson Neeson admits to have learned is that revenge solves nothing.
Neeson said, &#8220;I come from a society &#8211; I grew up in Northern Ireland in the Troubles &#8211; 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&#8217;s proof of that. All this stuff that&#8217;s happening in the world, the violence, is proof of that, you know. But that primal need, I understand.&#8221;
In Neeson&#8217;s newest film, &#8220;Cold Pursuit,&#8221; the Irish actor will be playing a father out for revenge after his son is killed by a drug gang.
Liam Neeson most recently endorsed the legalization of abortion in Ireland. &#8220;There are times when we must stand for what is right,&#8221; Neeson <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30373/liam-neeson-pushes-abortion-ireland-we-must-stand-paul-bois">claimed in a letter to The Independent</a>. &#8220;When the obvious injustice of a situation demands that we do so. For me, the upcoming referendum on the Eighth Amendment is one of those times. A time to stand up and be counted. A moment when men must stand with women.&#8221;

Liam Neeson Reveals He Had Violent Thoughts About Killing A Black Man After Loved One Was Raped

Ireland&#8217;s top celebrities have come out in favor of repealing the country&#8217;s Eighth Amendment, which protects unborn children from abortion.
Following the band U2&#8217;s endorsement of legalizing the killing of unborn children, actor Liam Neeson &#8212; the face of Oskar Schindler in the Holocaust drama &#8220;Schindler&#8217;s List&#8221; &#8212; says that the time has come to &#8220;stand up for what&#8217;s right.&#8221; In <a href="https://www.irishpost.com/entertainment/liam-neeson-voices-support-for-repeal-the-8th-movement-ahead-of-abortion-referendum-154403">a letter to the Independent</a> this past Sunday, Neeson called the Eighth Amendment an &#8220;injustice&#8221; that must be corrected.
&#8220;There are times when we must stand for what is right,&#8221; Neeson claimed. &#8220;When the obvious injustice of a situation demands that we do so. For me, the upcoming referendum on the Eighth Amendment is one of those times. A time to stand up and be counted. A moment when men must stand with women.&#8221;
Throughout Neeson&#8217;s letter, he describes abortion as a woman&#8217;s right, never once mentioning the human right to life. At one point, strangely, he touts his past work as a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador for &#8220;children&#8217;s rights.&#8221; And then, as if advising people to not educate themselves, Neeson then advises that &#8220;there&#8217;s nothing wrong in not knowing everything there is to know about abortion.&#8221;
Translation: Being ignorant of the harsh reality of abortion is secondary to the issue.
Finally, Neeson frames repealing the Eighth Amendment in terms of overthrowing the patriarchy by touting several myths and half-truths that were never a characteristic of Ireland.
&#8220;Yes, gone are the days when our country used to drop our pregnant women and girls off at the gates of institutions that hid them behind high walls,&#8221; Neeson wrote. &#8220;Yet still, we drop our girlfriends, wives, daughters, sisters and mothers to the departure gates at Dublin Airport, forcing them to travel to other countries to access basic healthcare services and denying them necessary aftercare upon their return.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2018/05/07/actor-liam-neeson-pushes-ireland-to-legalize-abortion-we-must-stand-for-whats-right/">LifeNews</a> refuted this false claim fairly quickly:
<blockquote>
This is not true. Earlier this spring, Dr. Eamon McGuinness, a former chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in Ireland, wrote <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/medical-myths-about-eighth-amendment-must-be-challenged-1.3451748">a column for the Irish Times</a> refuting these exact claims.
If the laws truly were putting women at risk, McGuiness said he &#8220;would be leading the charge to have them expunged from the Constitution. A constitutional restriction on my ability, or the ability of any of my colleagues, to save the life of a pregnant woman would indeed be intolerable.&#8221;
Since 1983, when Ireland passed its Eighth Amendment to protect unborn babies&#8217; right to life, McGuinness said the country has become one of the safest places in the world for pregnant mothers.
</blockquote>
Ireland will vote whether or not to repeal the Eighth on May 25. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-strong-lead-for-irish-abortion-reform-despite-slip-in-support-2018-4">Business Insider reports</a> that 47% of Irish voters will vote to repeal, down 9 points from an earlier poll. Only 28% will vote to retain while another 20% remain undecided.
Last week, the band U2 also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30234/bono-false-christian-u2-tells-ireland-legalize-paul-bois">came out in favor of repeal</a>.

Liam Neeson Pushes Abortion In Ireland: ‘We Must Stand For What’s Right’

Abortion

Ireland

Add Liam Neeson and Condi Rice to the growing list of famous names who have pushed back against some of the excesses and premises of the #MeToo/#TimesUp movement.
After the bombshell allegations against megaproducer Harvey Weinstein first broke, #MeToo accusations have exploded, often involving celebrities like Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Dustin Hoffman, and, just this weekend, Aziz Ansari. Some of those who have been accused as well as some on the outside looking in, like Neeson and Rice, have publicly suggested that the movement is in danger of going too far and, in some cases, already has. Below are five famous figures that have challenged #MeToo in some way over the last few months, followed by a look at the new accusation leveled against Ansari that appears to be an example of an abuse of #MeToo.
Liam Neeson
The Associated Press reported on Saturday that in an interview with Irish broadcaster RTE, actor Liam Neeson described the #MeToo movement as having turned into &#8220;<a href="http://&#8203;https://apnews.com/4ac64c7334db423f842692587c011974/Liam-Neeson:-%22Bit-of-a-witch-hunt%22-over-sex-allegations">a bit of a witch hunt</a>.&#8221;
&#8220;There&#8217;s some people, famous people, being suddenly accused of touching some girl&#8217;s knee or something and suddenly they&#8217;re being dropped from their program,&#8221; he said in an interview that was part of his promotional campaign for his new film &#8220;The Commuter.&#8221;
As an example, Neeson cited longtime Minnesota Public Radio host Garrison Keillor, who may have been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24192/garrison-keillor-vents-his-anger-i-think-i-have-joseph-curl">collateral damage</a> in the wave of sometimes unsubstantiated accusations. The kinds of accusations leveled at Keillor, said Neeson, weren&#8217;t the same as those leveled at Weinstein. The actor also called into question <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24710/dustin-hoffman-accused-exposing-himself-minor-james-barrett">accusations against Dustin Hoffman</a>, describing himself as &#8220;on the fence&#8221; regarding their veracity.
Though he raised questions about the kinds of accusations being leveled, Neeson also partially praised the movement on the &#8220;Late Late Show&#8221; Friday, describing it as &#8220;healthy,&#8221; AP notes.
Condoleezza Rice
In a discussion with CNN&#8217;s David Axelrod on Saturday, Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned against the potential negative impacts of the #MeToo victim mentality on women.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s not turn women into snowflakes. Let&#8217;s not infantilize women,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/25839/condoleezza-rice-dont-let-metoo-turn-women-emily-zanotti">said</a> Rice.
Like Neeson, she described the movement as largely healthy, and expressed sympathy with women who have been treated poorly in the workplace, as she has been herself at times. But she also suggested that if the movement gets out of control, it could end up backfiring on women, with men getting &#8220;to a place that [they] start to think, &#8216;Well, maybe it&#8217;s just better not to have women around.'&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard a little bit of that,&#8221; she added, &#8220;and it, it worries me.&#8221;
Matt Damon
Like his peers, Matt Damon has largely expressed solidarity with #MeToo; however, he was also one of the first to challenge the direction some of it was taking. Unfortunately for Damon, his ham-fisted attempts to rein in #MeToo blew up in his face when he seemed to try to downplay some serious, admitted offenses, and failed to convincingly explain his lack of action in the case of Weinstein, with whom he had worked closely several times over the years.&#8203;
&#8220;I do believe that there&#8217;s a spectrum of behavior, right? And we&#8217;re going to have to figure &#8212; you know, there&#8217;s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24713/matt-damons-trainwreck-harassment-interview-top-5-james-barrett">Damon told</a> Peter Travers in an interview in December. &#8220;Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn&#8217;t be conflated, right? &#8230; I mean, look, as I said, all of that behavior needs to be confronted, but there is a continuum.&#8221;
While Damon rightly attempted to distinguish between things like rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and tasteless jokes, he also tried to defend Louis C.K., who openly admitted to his appalling behavior. Damon also managed to work in a partial defense of Democratic Senator Al Franken, which came off as Damon&#8217;s usual partisanship. The result was Damon getting blasted from all sides, including by &#8220;Good Will Hunting&#8221; co-star Minnie Driver, who called his attitude &#8220;<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/24867/minnie-driver-matt-damons-views-sexual-abuse-are-james-barrett">part of the problem</a>.&#8221;
&#8203;Jeremy Piven&#8203;
Like Damon, Jeremy Piven has expressed solidarity with the movement in general, but he has raised strong objections against accusations leveled against him and called out those who abuse #MeToo sympathy. After being accused by reality television star Ariane Bellamar of cornering her and grabbing her breasts and butt on two separate occasions, Piven issued a blistering response.
&#8220;I unequivocally deny the appalling allegations being peddled about me. It did not happen,&#8221; said Piven in a <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/hbo-releases-statement-regarding-jeremy-piven-allegations.html">statement</a> issued in late October. &#8220;It takes a great deal of courage for victims to come forward with their histories, and my hope is that the allegations about me that didn&#8217;t happen, do not detract from stories that should be heard.&#8221;
After two more accusers came forward with similar allegations, Piven stood by his claim that he is innocent, insisting that he would take a lie detector test to prove it and threatening legal action against false accusers.
Seal
While singer Seal has not come out and blasted the #MeToo movement in general, he has slammed some of its celebrity leadership, particularly Oprah Winfrey, for what he suggests is their hypocritical role in furthering an industry plagued by the kinds of sexual misconduct they are now getting applauding for speaking out against.
In an Instagram post following Winfrey&#8217;s much celebrated speech at the Golden Globes, Seal called out those who have been &#8220;<a href="https://pagesix.com/2018/01/11/seal-blasts-oprah-as-part-of-the-problem/">part of the problem</a>,&#8221; like Winfrey. Seal posted two photos of Winfrey chumming it up with Harvey Weinstein and wrote, &#8220;When you have been part of the problem for decades, but suddenly they all think you are the solution.&#8221; He added a sarcastic comment to the right of the images: &#8220;Oh I forgot, that&#8217;s right&#8230;..you&#8217;d heard the rumours but you had no idea he was actually serially assaulting young stary-eyed actresses who in turn had no idea what they were getting into. My bad.&#8221;
Aziz Ansari: A Victim of &#8220;#MeToo Excesses&#8221;?
In an opinion piece in January, political commentator Andrew Sullivan summed up many of the arguments of other well-known names who are warning against the &#8220;<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/andrew-sullivan-time-to-resist-excesses-of-metoo.html">excesses of #MeToo</a>.&#8221; What started off as a &#8220;righteous exposure of hideous abuse of power,&#8221; says Sullivan, has &#8220;morphed into a more generalized revolution against the patriarchy&#8221;:
<blockquote>
The early exposure of Roger Ailes, Bill O&#8217;Reilly, and Harvey Weinstein &#8212; achieved by meticulous, scrupulous journalists and smart, determined women &#8212; quickly extended to more ambiguous and trivial cases. Distinctions among many different types of offenses &#8212; from bad behavior at private parties to brutal assault and rape of employees and co-workers &#8212; were being instantly lost in the fervor. Punishment was almost always the same &#8212; social ostracism and career destruction &#8212; whether you were Mark Halperin, who allegedly sexually assaulted women in his workplace, or Al Franken, damned because of mild handsiness and pretending to grope a woman&#8217;s breasts as a joke. Any presumption of innocence was regarded as a misogynist dodge, and an anonymous online list of accusations against named men in the media was created and circulated with nary an attempt by its instigators to substantiate a single one. Within a few weeks, the righteous exposure of hideous abuse of power had morphed into a more generalized revolution against the patriarchy.
</blockquote>
Over the weekend, what appears to be an example of the &#8220;#MeToo excesses&#8221; Sullivan and others are warning about made headlines: #TimesUp-supporting comedian Aziz Ansari was accused of sexual misconduct by an anonymous accuser going by the name of &#8220;Grace.&#8221; In the account published by the website Babe, Grace describes an awkward and regrettable sexual encounter with Ansari, but one in which she describes him failing to respond to her &#8220;non-verbal cues&#8221; that she was &#8220;uncomfortable&#8221; hooking up with him, rather than anything that could be defined as &#8220;sexual assault.&#8221;
Ansari responded with a partial defense of himself. &#8220;The next day, I got a text from her saying that although it may have seemed okay, upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable,&#8221; Ansari told NBC in a statement. &#8220;It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/25874/walsh-ridiculous-sex-assault-allegations-against-matt-walsh">Matt Walsh</a> points out, what Grace describes is not rape or sexual assault, it is a regrettable one-night stand that has been folded into the #MeToo movement in a way that reveals some of its actors do indeed participate in the kind of &#8220;witch hunt&#8221; Neeson referenced. Here&#8217;s Walsh capturing what appears to be really driving Grace&#8217;s #MeToo accusation:
<blockquote>
Grace felt violated after the fact. I don&#8217;t blame her for that. I blame her for seeking revenge by publishing intimate details of a clearly consensual encounter, but her feelings of emptiness and vulnerability are perfectly warranted. She was indeed violated, but she was complicit in the violation. That is the nature of casual sex. The two partners violate each other. A man uses a woman&#8217;s body for his own selfish ends, and the woman allows it, and reciprocates by using the man for her own purposes. If either wakes up feeling depressed the next day, it&#8217;s because they regret participating in such a degrading and humiliating exchange. The regret is real, and can be crushing, but it does not retroactively turn the events of the previous evening into rape. The sex remains what it was when you willingly participated in it: self-centered, dehumanizing, shallow, soulless, and, yes, consensual.
</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/25884/ridiculous-accusations-against-aziz-ansari-ben-shapiro">SHAPIRO: Absurd Accusations Against Aziz Ansari Completely Undermine The #MeToo Movement</a>
This article has been revised to include Seal&#8217;s condemnation of Winfrey.

#TooMuch #MeToo: Five Famous People Who’ve Pushed Back Against #MeToo

Matt Damon

Sexual Assault

Action star Liam Neeson recorded a new ad for Amnesty International calling on Ireland to make abortion legal. 
The message of the commercial is that protecting innocent unborn baby humans from murderous doctors employed by mothers not wanting the responsibility of the life they created is an antiquated cause. Neeson uses dark flowery language to get across the idea that repealing the 8th Amendment in Ireland is a good thing because killing babies is a far better option than letting them be adopt by loving families. 
In the ad, Neeson says, &#8220;A ghost haunts Ireland. A cruel ghost of the last century&#8230; It blindly brings suffering, even death, to the women whose lives it touches. Feared by politicians, this is a ghost of paper and ink&#8230; A constitution written for a different time. It is the shadow of the country we&#8217;d left behind&#8230; Ireland doesn&#8217;t have to be chained to its past. It&#8217;s time to lay this ghost of rest.&#8221;
But people have <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2015/11/27/people-hated-liam-neesons-pro-abortion-ad-so-much-amnesty-international-hid-the-ratings/" target="_blank">hated the ad so much</a> that the ratings have been blocked because four times as many people have thumbs-downed the video than thumbs-upped it. 
People have also shared their displeasure with the actor on social media, not unlike this shout-out from Jimmy Kimmel&#8217;s celebrity mean tweets&#8230;
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt="liam neeson" class="media-element file-default" data-fid="2070" data-media-element="1" height="340" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/LiamNeesonMeantweet.jpg" width="600" /></div>
Neeson&#8217;s latest installment of his hugely successful action film franchise &#8216;Taken&#8217; will now most likely be titled: &#8216;Taken&#8230;. Away A Baby&#8217;s Right To Life.&#8217;
Gonna be <a href="http://img.ifcdn.com/images/a200cc2c2ae67b9809c7dd7e6fe5228427fb08111f3cfb54d7138e60321a21c5_1.jpg" target="_blank">YUGE</a>.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/db542_Xw6f8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

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