“I will find you and I will kill you”- Liam Neeson immortalized these words in Taken when his retired operative went after his daughter’s kidnappers. Turns out, the actor might have been a bit too inspired by this monologue in real-life. In 2019, Neeson confessed that he carried a gun with him for a week hoping to kill any black man because his friend was r*ped by one.
His words weren’t received well, to say the least, and he profusely apologized for it as well. The actor also kept a low profile after that. However, he wasn’t quite embraced by the public again. But then he did something in the Atlanta TV show that left everyone with their mouth agape. However, getting him to do that iconic cameo wasn’t easy and Jordan Peele had to step in.
Liam Neeson’s Iconic Atlanta Cameo In The Cancel Club
In Atlanta season 3, Liam Neeson made a cameo appearance as himself. He can be seen sitting in a bar called Cancel Club where celebs who have been publicly shamed find refuge. The actor found himself relegated to that bar because of the controversial real-life comments he made in 2019 about carrying a weapon and looking to kill any black man. In the show, he talked to Brian Tyree Henry’s Paper Boi.
The conversation that happened between them next can’t be summarized. It went as follows:
Paper Boi: “It’s good to know that you don’t hate Black people.”
Liam Neeson: “No, no, no. I can’t stand the lot of you. Well, now I feel that way. Because you tried to ruin my career. Didn’t succeed, mind you. However, I’m sure one day I will get over it. But until then, we are mortal enemies.”
Paper Boi: “But…didn’t you learn that you shouldn’t say sh*t like that?”
Liam Neeson: “Yeah. But I also learned that the best and worst part about being white is that you don’t have to learn anything if you don’t want to.”
It’s almost unheard of a celeb facing public backlash to actually go on a show as themselves and then comment on the very topic that is getting them ostracized online. However, his cameo worked to drive home the theme of how white people don’t really face major repercussions for their racism. But how did Donald Glover convince Neeson to do this wildly meta cameo? Well, he didn’t. Jordan Peele did.
How Did Jordan Peele Convince Liam Neeson To Do His Meta Cameo In Atlanta Series?
In a GQ interview, Donald Glover revealed that he had tried hard to get Liam Neeson for the Atlanta season 3 cameo, even saying to the actor that it will help him get his reputation back. But nothing worked as Neeson was adamant. Glover said:
“When I got in touch with him, Liam poured his heart out. He was like, ‘I am embarrassed. I don’t know about this. I’m trying to get away from that.’ And I was like, ‘Man, I’m telling you, this will be funny! And you’ll actually get a lot of cream from it because it’ll show you’re sorry.’ So, he asked me to let him think about it. Then he sent me an email saying, ‘I don’t think I can do it and best of luck with Atlanta, blah-blah-blah.'”
Read More: $51.8B Franchise Spent Insane Amount of Money on Liam Neeson for Stupendously Ridiculous Reason
Glover later remembered the Batman Begins actor saying that he had talked to major Black celebrities like Jordan Peele, Spike Lee, and Morgan Freeman. So he called Peele out of them and requested him to convince Neeson. It worked because the Nope director thought that the cameo was a good idea. Glover explained:
“Jordan thought it was hilarious! So Jordan talked to him. Liam hit me back and said he talked to Jordan and his son and thought it’d actually be a good thing.”
It’s interesting that this zany idea for a cameo even worked. But thankfully it did or viewers wouldn’t have been able to witness that shocking commentary.
Atlanta is available on Hulu.
Source: GQ
