Michelle Rodriguez says Liam Neeson can't be racist for a surprising reason, and fans are shook

This week aging action star Liam Neeson added something new to his particular set of skills: tell shocking personal stories during press junkets. While speaking to The Independent about his new film Cold Pursuit, he, uh brought up something different: Forty years ago, he learned a close friend of his got raped by a black dude, spurring a vigilante plan to take racist revenge.

"I went up and down areas with a cosh [nightstick], hoping I’d be approached by somebody," shared the Taken star. "I’m ashamed to say that, and I did it for maybe a week – hoping some [making air quotes] ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him. It took me a week, maybe a week and a half, to go through that... It’s awful. But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the f*ck are you doing’, you know?'"

Neeson's bombshell story sparked a passionate reaction from fans. Some condemned his disturbing behavior and declared him "cancelled" for contemplating committing a hate crime. Others, like Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews, The View host Whoopi Goldberg and former soccer player John Barnes, defended the 66-year-old actor.

"I believe that every person on earth is capable of the greatest good, or unspeakable evil," tweeted Crews. "You can't be surprised that somebody whose loved one is attacked is angry and wants to go out and attack," stated Goldberg on The View. And Barnes argued, "What he’s done is he’s come out and told the truth. He should be applauded for saying, ‘Yes, I was an unconscious racist and after a week I realized I was.’"

On Tuesday, Neeson appeared on Good Morning America to clarify his comments. He said he would have acted the same way if the attacker was "a Scot or a Brit or a Lithuanian." Also, he shared his experiences with bigotry while filming the movie Schindler's List and growing up during The Troubles Of Northern Ireland. "I am not racist," he concluded. "This was nearly 40 years ago."

As the debate rages on, The Fast and The Furious star Michelle Rodriguez defended Liam Neeson for a surprising reason: He can't be racist because he kissed African-American actress Viola Davis in the 2018 movie Widows.

"It’s all f***in' bullsh*t," Rodriguez told Vanity Fair at the amfAR Gala in New York. "Liam Neeson is not a racist. Dude, have you watched Widows? 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. I don’t care how good of an actor you are. It’s all bullsh*t. Ignore it. He’s not a racist. He’s a loving man. It’s all lies."

And now there's a backlash to Michelle Rodriguez's comments about the backlash to Liam Neeson's comments. Is anyone else getting dizzy? Anyway, one thing's for sure: Lionsgate, the movie studio that produced Cold Pursuit, cannot be happy about this brouhaha.