Liam Neeson has denied allegations of racist behavior when he sought revenge on a friend almost 40 years ago. "I'm not a racist," said the British-American actor on ABC's US breakfast television "Good Morning America."

In an interview with the British newspaper The Independent, the 66-year-old described how he reacted when a woman close to him said she had been raped by a black man: "I ran the streets with a blackjack on and down the street hoping that I'll meet someone - I'm ashamed to say that - and I might have done that a week, hoping that a 'black bastard' will come out of a pub and provoke me so that I can (...) could kill. " The words "black bastard" accompanied Neeson according to the interviewer with a gesture for quotation marks.

He had sought help at that time, had spoken with a Catholic priest, Neeson now in the ABC interview. About his behavior he said: "It shocked me and it hurt me." Asked what he hopes people will learn, the actor said, "Talking, opening up, talking about these things, we all pretend that we are politically correct (...), but sometimes scratch on the surface and discover this racism and this narrow-mindedness. "

"It was terrible"

Some users of social networks accused Neeson of racism, others pointed out that he apologized for his earlier behavior in the original interview. Neeson had said, "It was awful, terrible, when I think back to doing that." He learned his lesson. Regarding the political situation in his native Northern Ireland, he said he could understand revenge thirst, "but it only leads to further revenge, more killing and more killing".

Background of the "The Independent" interview was the new Neeson movie "Cold Pursuit" (German title: "Hard Powder"), in which a father starts a vendetta after the murder of his son. Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland has made this US remake of his own action drama "One after another", which ran in 2014 at the Berlinale.

Neeson was once nominated for his role in "Schindler's list" for an Oscar, later he was seen, inter alia, in "Star Wars" and numerous action films.