Jordan Peele convinced Liam Neeson to carry out his Atlanta cameo

Liam Neeson was allegedly encouraged by Jordan Peele to accept an opportunity to star in Atlanta to poke fun at his racist comments made in 2019, according to Donald Glover.

Neeson garnered intense backlash when he expressed wanting to kill a Black person for an incident of sexual violence experienced by a friend. The actor stood on the streets with a weapon waiting for a “Black bastard” to “come out of a pub and have a go at me…so that I could kill him” after his friend was sexually assaulted by a Black man.

The Irish actor apologised several times for his comments and how they “do not reflect, in any way, my true feelings nor me,” but now he got to laugh at his comments thanks to Donald Glover, the creator of Atlanta, and the assistance of Jordan Peele.

Glover recently spoke to GQ about trying to get Neeson on for the fourth season episode “New Jazz.” 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.’  He asked me to let him think about it.”

Neeson at first refused to make a cameo in the show at Club Cancel, but Jordan Peele then came in to give a push to the actor.

Glover mentioned how the Irish actor then turned to some friends to talk about the incident and being asked to cameo.

“Liam said he talked to Morgan Freeman, Jordan Peele and Spike Lee. So I was like…Jordan Peele!”

After Glover reached out to Peele; the director, writer, producer and artist reached out to Neeson, along with his son, and got him to change his mind.

“Liam hit me back and said he talked to Jordan and his son and thought it’d actually be a good thing. But what was so funny is, like, I forgot to hit Jordan back. I was so excited about Liam doing it,” continued Glover. “So Jordan hit a friend of mine, and was like, ‘Am I on a prank show where Donald got me to forgive Liam Neeson? Was this a joke…on me?’”

The season four episode sees Neeson playing a fictional version of himself while talking to Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) about his actions and how he is sorry for them. During their conversation, Neeson reveals that he understands why he can’t say racist remarks like that and delivers a powerful line written by Glover.

Neeson states, “Aye. But I also learned that the best and worst part of being white is that we don’t have to learn anything if we don’t want to.”

Neeson stated during the time of the incident about 40 years ago, “I am a fairly intelligent guy. That’s why it kind of shocked me when I came down to earth after having these terrible feelings. Luckily, no violence occurred. I did want to lash out because my friend was brutally raped and I was defending her honour. It was a learning curve.”