Emmy Award nominated actor Billy Dee Williams says he is perfectly OK with non-black actors performing in “blackface,” and feels that actors should be able to take on any role they want to try.
Williams, 87, who burst into the national consciousness in 1971 with the tearjerker TV film, Brian’s Song, and cemented himself in pop culture with his role as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars series in the 1980s, was the guest this week on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, and during his comments Williams shocked Maher when he spoke approvingly of acting in blackface.
Williams told Maher that he “fell out laughing” with Laurence Olivier’s 1965 performance as Shakespeare’s seminal black character Othello, in which Olivier wore black face paint to play the role. Williams added that he thought it was hilarious that Olivier thrust his rear-end out, “because Black people are supposed to have big asses.”
“I thought it was hysterical. I loved it,” Williams told Maher. “I love that kind of stuff.”
Williams went on to question the logic of banning blackface performances today.
“Why not? You should do it,” Williams exclaimed. “If you’re an actor, you should do anything you want to do.”
Maher was slightly aghast and pointed out that Williams is old enough to have lived in an era when black actors couldn’t even get certain roles.
Williams, who first started acting in 1959 and was a mainstay on TV through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, rejected the victim mentality.
“The point is that you don’t go through life feeling like, ‘I’m a victim,'” Williams insisted. “I refuse to go through life saying to the world, ‘I’m pissed off.’ I’m not gonna be pissed off 24 hours a day.”
He also defended the right of actors and entertainers to indulge their creativity.
“If I’m going to be creative, let me be creative as an individualist. I don’t want to do anything based on this whole idea that you’re a Black person, you’re a white person and things of that nature. I’m an artist. I’m a creative entity in this life,” he explained.
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