Source: Variety / Getty
Celebrities are just like us.
You’ll be having a regular conversation with an older person in your family, and suddenly, they make one of the most offensive remarks about another race or gender.
Now, one of those moments happened to Billy Dee Williams while appearing on an episode of Bill Maher‘s Club Random podcast.
Most people think blackface is pretty offensive. But Bill Dee? Nah, he’s cool with it.
The conversation began when the two discussed Laurence Olivier’s performance as Othello in 1965, where he wore blackface for the entire film and adopted stereotypical mannerisms that Black people have.
“When [Olivier] did ‘Othello,’ I fell out laughing,” Williams admitted. “He stuck his ass out and walked around with his ass because Black people are supposed to have big asses.”
Maher tried to stop Williams from taking that road by interrupting him and saying it was “Problematic.”
But Williams continued with his controversial opinion.
“I fell out laughing. I thought it was hysterical,” he added. “I loved it. I love that kind of stuff.”
Maher interjected again by saying how blackface is extremely unacceptable today, but Williams wasn’t having it, adding, “Why not? You should do it. If you’re an actor, you should do anything you want to do.”
Maher points out that Williams was born in the 1930s when Hollywood was different, and roles he should have been cast for were given to white men.
But Williams disagrees with that sentiment: “The point is that you don’t go through life feeling like, ‘I’m a victim.’ 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.”
Billy’s been promoting his new book, What Have We Here: Portraits of a Life, which released in February. But he is more well known as Lando Calrissian in the 1980 film, The Empire Strikes Back, making him the first black actor with a major role in the Star Wars franchise. He’d reprise Calrissian in 1983’s Return of the Jedi and 2019’s Rise of Skywalker.
See how social media is reacting to Williams’ surprising comments about blackface below.
