Billy Dee Williams has said that actors should be able to perform in blackface, and the Star Wars actor has revealed that he believes “if you’re an actor, you should be able to do whatever you want.”
Talk to Bill Maher on the Club Random Podcast, the 87-year-old actor recalled laughing while watching the 1965 film “Othello,” in which the title character played by Laurence Olivier was blacked out. Williams said she thought the performance was “really interesting.”
“When he played Othello, I started laughing,” he said. “He was walking around with his butt sticking out and his butt sticking out. Black people are supposed to have big butts…I thought that was hysterical. I liked it. I like that kind of thing. ”
Maher replied: “The problem is, these days they would never let you do that.” Williams asked, “Why?”
“Blackface?” Maher said incredulously.
“Why not? You should do it,” Williams said. “If you’re an actor, you should do whatever you want to do…As an actor, anything you think you can do, you should be able to do.”
When Maher said that Williams “was living in a time where he couldn’t really do that, couldn’t do the role he was supposed to play,” Williams objected.
“But it didn’t matter. Of course it happened, but we really need to talk about it. The important thing is not to go through life feeling like, ‘I’m a victim,'” Williams said. said. “I refuse to go through life telling the world, ‘I’m angry.’ I’m not going to be angry 24 hours a day.”
Williams also told Maher earlier in the interview: I don’t want to do anything based on the idea of, “You’re black, you’re white,” or anything of that nature. I am an artist. I am a creative being in this life. ”
Williams is best known for his role as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars series, and has appeared in more than 100 roles in film, stage and television, including Brian’s Song and Batman.
In an interview with the Guardian in February, Williams recalled the film written by his friend James Baldwin, who said he wanted Williams to play Malcolm X. Film studio Columbia Pictures revealed that Marlon Brando was in talks to play the black civil rights activist, and Williams revealed that he was considering it. It was “hysterical, but kind of funny.”
Asked how he felt about blackface at the time, Williams replied: There are many things you can do. Most people in my head have a very local and myopic view of the world. All you have to do is use your imagination. If you can use your imagination well, you can do something really interesting without having to do the obvious things to achieve what you are trying to achieve.”
