Billy Dee Williams has said that actors should be able to perform in blackface, with the Star Wars actor revealing that he believes, âIf youâre an actor, you should do anything you want to doâ.
Speaking to Bill Maher on the Club Random podcast, the 87-year-old actor recalled laughing while watching the 1965 film Othello, where the titular character played by Laurence Olivier is in blackface. Williams said he thought the performance was âreally interestingâ.
âWhen he did Othello, I fell out laughing,â he said. âHe stuck his ass out and walked around with his ass, you know, because Black people are supposed to have big asses ⦠I thought it was hysterical. I loved it. I love that kind of stuff.â
When Maher replied: âHereâs the thing: today, they would never let you do that.â Williams asked, âWhy?â
âBlackface?â Maher said, incredulously.
âWhy not? You should do it,â Williams said. âIf youâre an actor, you should do anything you want to do ⦠As an actor, whatever you think you can do, you should be able to do it.â
When Maher remarked that Williams âactually lived in a period where you couldnât do that, where you couldnât play the part you shouldâve playedâ, Williams objected.
âBut it didnât matter. Of course it happened but the fact is, you discuss it. The point is, that you donât go through life feeling like, âIâm a victim,ââ Williams said. âI refuse to go through life saying to the world, âIâm pissed off.â Iâm not gonna be pissed off 24 hours a day.â
Earlier in the interview, Williams also told Maher: âIf Iâm going to be creative, let me be creative as an individualist. I donât want to do anything based on this whole idea that âyouâre a Black person, youâre a white personâ and things of that nature. Iâm an artist. Iâm a creative entity in this life.â
Williams is best known for his performance as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise, and has appeared in more than 100 roles across film, stage and television including Brianâs Song and Batman.
In an interview with the Guardian in February, Williams recalled a film his friend James Baldwin wrote, for which Baldwin wanted Williams to play Malcolm X. He revealed that film studio Columbia Pictures has discussed Marlon Brando playing the Black civil rights activist, which Williams thought was âhysterical but a little bit interestingâ.
Asked about how he felt about blackface then, Williams said: âYou donât have to do blackface. There are lots of things you can do. Most people in my mind are very provincial and myopic in their vision of the world. All you have to do is use your imagination and, if youâre good at using your imagination, you can do some really interesting stuff without doing the obvious to achieve whatever it is youâre trying to achieve.â