Michelle Rodriguez Defends Liam Neeson After Racism Claims

[MUSIC] Cameron Diaz in The Mask. Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette. Henry Thomas playing Elliot on ET. Thomas O'Malley the alley cat from Aristocats. [INAUDIBLE] Sherry Lungi in Excalibur, sordid sorcery, you know. Not Gandalf, the other one. And it was really weird because Sherry Lungi, and I got to work with Sherry Lungi a little bit later in my career. She played my mother. And I was a serial killer. I was a bit awkward around her, and then I had to murder her. The girl in a woolly jumper on the television who used to do the Huntley and Palmer's biscuit commercial. And all she did was sit there in her woolly jumper and bite a biscuit, and then smile. But I used to sit in the television room for quite long periods waiting for the commercial to come on And I was obviously under cover because I couldn't tell my mother. Probably would be Joanna from Love Actually. It's first kiss too. First person I fell in love with was Justin Timberlake. [MUSIC]

Earlier this week, Liam Neeson made the press rounds to promote his new movie. However, instead of sticking to a list of talking points and sharing charming stories, the actor admitted to The Independent that he once thought about murdering someone after he heard that one of his close friends had been assaulted by a Black person. He didn't just seek revenge, which is what action heroes do in their movies, he elaborated, saying that he wandered bars for over a week hoping to start a fight with any Black person in the hopes of killing them. Naturally, people didn't take the comments so well and Neeson came under fire. But one of his co-stars is standing up for him, since he's apparently gone into hiding after the misstep.

Vanity Fair reports that Neeson's Widows co-star Michelle Rodriguez came to his defense, saying that there was no way that he was racist, because he made out with Viola Davis in the movie.

"His tongue was so far down Viola Davis’s throat. You can't call him a racist ever. Racists don't make out with the race that they hate, especially in the way he does with his tongue — so deep down her throat," Rodriguez explained. "I don't care how good of an actor you are."

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What Rodriguez didn't understand is that she didn't have to speak up for Neeson, even if she was pressed for info. And even though Neeson told the press that he sought help after the incident and that it happened almost 40 years ago, it doesn't warrant a comment from someone who worked with him on a movie. She wasn't the only person to chime in, however. Neeson got support for seeing that what he thought was wrong and addressing the issues of racism and ignorance in the present day with subsequent interviews.

According to the AV Club, he tried to smooth things over during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan, saying that he'd been raised in an environment that seeped in racism and bigotry.

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"I just feel we need to be honest. I grew up in a society where there was a lot of bigotry in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics and I’m so sick of it," he told Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. He continued the apology with the Daily Mail, adding, "If he was Irish, a Scot or Brit or a Lithuanian. I know I would have had the same reaction. Violence breeds violence. Bigotry breeds bigotry."