By Michael Hernandez</p> <p>WASHINGTON (AA) – Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson sought to defend himself against charges of racism Tuesday after giving a controversy-laden interview in which he said he sought revenge on any black man he could find after someone close to him was raped. </p> <p>"I'm not racist," Neeson said during an interview on Good Morning America. "This was nearly 40 years ago."</p> <p>The Taken star told the British newspaper The Independent during a press tour for his forthcoming movie that he had sought to carry out a revenge plot on a random black person after his close friend told him she was raped by a black man who she could not identify. </p> <p>Neeson recounted the series of events again Tuesday morning. </p> <p> "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. And I did it for, I'd say maybe, four or five times until I caught myself. And it really shocked me — this primal urge I had. It shocked me and it hurt me," he said. </p> <p>The actor said if the woman, who he did not identify, had said the attacker was white, he would have sought out someone of that race.</p> <p>"If she had said an Irish, or a Scot, or a Brit or a Lithuanian, I know I would have felt the same effect," he said. "I was trying to show honor to my, stand up for my dear friend in this terrible medieval fashion. I'm a fairly intelligent guy, and that's why it kind of shocked me when I came down to Earth after having these horrible feelings."</p> <p>Neeson said he sought help from a priest and friends to pull him out of the dark spiral. </p> <p>His initial comments had drawn outrage online, including from black actor Terry Crews, who said apparently sarcastically on Twitter: "Hmmmm. Reminds me of a time I got provoked by a rich white guy I didn’t know. Hoping I would do something."</p> <p>"Thank God I never took the bait," he added.
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