In the opinion of iconic Hollywood actor Billy Dee Williams, not only does he take no issue with the practice of actors engaging in ‘black face’, but he refuses to give it any weigh because he does not wish to “go through life feeling like, ‘I’m a victim'”.
The actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise and Harvey Dent in 1989’s Batman, offered his take on the controversial acting practice during an appearance on the April 7th episode of Bill Maher’s eponymous Club Random with Bill Maher podcast.
Amidst a conversation regarding his personal relationship with seminal movie star Laurence Olivier, Williams eventually turned to recall a discussion the pair had regarding the former’s eventual role as the titular Moor hero in the 1965 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play Othello.
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“I remember saying, ‘Have you ever thought about playing Othello?'” recalled the actor, “and he said ‘No. Yeah, I thought about playing Othello, but I always see – do you remember [Old Man River singer] Paul Robeson?”
“When he finally did it, he did in black face,” Williams continued. “He wanted to do it but he always had this vision [of Othello] with Robeson’s [a black man] stature and voice. So finally, when he did it, he filmed – I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the performance, if you ever get a chance, it’s really interesting.”
“He did something that – he was known to be a bit outrageous,” said the Star Wars legend. “Olivier was more physical. he got criticized a lot for being physical and doing things with his voice that was a bit outrageous. But when he did Othello, I fell out laughing. He stuck his ass out and walked around with his ass – because black people are supposed to have big asses. I fell out laughing. I thought it was hysterical. I loved it. I loved it. I love that kind of stuff. Yes. Who doesn’t?!”
Taken aback by his guest’s cavalier attitude towards the practice, Maher then interjected, “I agree, okay, but here’s the thing: Today, I mean, they would never let you do that,” to which Williams inquired, “Why? Why not?”
Met with a baffled exclamation of “BLACKFACE?” from his host, Williams further affirmed, “If you’re an actor, you should anything you want to do.”
“I mean, [actor Paul Muni] and I used to talk about this all the time,” he explained. “Muni was the one, the first person that I worked with in those years, who said to me, ‘As an actor, you should be able to do – whatever you think you can do you should be able to do it.”
“But again,” Maher replied, “not to bring up your sore point, but you actually lived in a period where you couldn’t play the part you should have played.”
“But it didn’t matter” countered Williams.
“And that’s a great attitude, but it still did happen,” Maher shot back, in turn prompting a response of “Of course it happened!” from Williams.
“But the fact is that you discuss it, anybody can talk about it, means it was happening,” clarified the actor. “But the point is, that you don’t go through life feeling like ‘I’m a victim’.”
“I mean, I refuse to go through life saying to the world, ‘I’m pissed off,'” concluded Williams. “I’m not going to be pissed off 24 hours a day.”
Putting a stamp on this portion of their conversation, Maher ultimately declared, “And you shouldn’t, because of all that p—y you got!”
