AceShowbiz - Liam Neeson attended the Spanish premiere of his movie "Cold Pursuit", five months after its original New York gala was cancelled due to a racism row.

The actor, 67, has largely stayed out of the public eye since he told British newspaper The Independent in February that when he was a young man he once wandered the streets, armed, looking for a black man roughly fitting the description of an attacker who raped his friend.

The star's comments derailed his publicity tour for "Cold Pursuit", in which he plays a bereaved father out to avenge his son's death, resulting in apologetic appearances on U.S. TV news shows and the axing of the premiere.

Liam was smiling again when he appeared on the red carpet at the Capitol Cinema in Madrid, posing for the cameras before heading into the screening.

In the troubling interview with The Independent, the "Taken" star said that after he was told of the rape, "I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I'd be approached by somebody - I'm ashamed to say that - and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some black b**tard would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him."

He later apologised on U.S. TV show "Good Morning America", explaining that he had sought help to curb the "primal urge to lash out" he felt as a young man, and that he is now horrified by racism.

Liam later issued another apology, writing that he had reflected on his remarks in the interview and said sorry for hurting those affected by racist violence.

"What I failed to realize is that this is not about justifying my anger all those years ago, it is also about the impact my words have today," he mused. "I was wrong to do what I did. I recognize that, although the comments I made do not reflect, in any way, my true feelings nor me, they were hurtful and divisive. I profoundly apologize."

"Cold Pursuit" debuts in Spanish cinemas from the July 26, five months after its U.K. and U.S. release.