"If you're an actor, you should do anything you want to do": Billy Dee Williams weighs in on actors wearing blackface

American actor, novelist, and painter Billy Dee Williams recently appeared on the Club Random podcast with Bill Maher and shared his insights on actors wearing blackface. When the host mentioned how today’s artists could no longer do the same, Billy Dee Williams replied:

“Why not? You should do it. If you are an actor, you should do anything you want to do.”

Their conversation started with the host talking about Bradley Cooper reportedly using a prosthetic nose for the Leonard Bernstein biopic, Maestro, to which Billy responded with a laugh.

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What else did Billy Dee Williams say on the podcast?

During April 8’s episode of the Club Random podcast, the 87-year-old Billy Dee Williams spoke about actors wanting to wear blackface for their roles onscreen and onstage.

He recalled how he thoroughly enjoyed and laughed when he saw late British actor Laurence Olivier wear blackface to portray the role of Othello in the eponymous movie in 1965:

“When he did Othello, I fell out laughing… I thought it was hysterical. I loved it. I love that kind of stuff,” Dee Williams stated.

When the host further explained that “today, they would never let you do that [blackface],” Billy Dee Williams said that actors should be allowed to do anything they wanted in order to do justice to the roles they play.

In this context, Bill Maher added that Billy Dee Williams “lived in a period where you couldn’t play the parts you should have played.” As a response, the Batman star stated:

“But it didn’t matter. Of course, it happened. But the fact is, you discuss it. The point is that you don’t go through life feeling like, ‘I am a victim.’ I refuse to go through life saying to the world, ‘I am p*ssed off.’ I am not gonna be p*ssed off 24 hours a day.”

The Brian’s Song star further continued by saying:

“If I am going to be creative, let me be creative as an individualist... I am an artist. I am a creative entity in this life.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, Billy Dee Williams talked about arrogance, artificial intelligence making people live longer, the big bang theory, different schools of acting, and how certain individuals with a difficult upbringing turn out to be fine.

He also discussed his long-spanning, diverse career and his latest memoir, What Have We Here? Portraits of a Life, which revolves around his formative years in Harlem and his successful Hollywood and Broadway professions.

The duo on the podcast also shed light on the religious influence George Carlin has had on him as well as Bill Maher.

Earlier in February, during an interview with The Guardian, Billy Dee Williams said how his friend and writer, James Baldwin, once wrote a film in which he wanted Billy to play the role of civil rights activist Malcolm X.

However, the studio, Columbia Pictures, reportedly wanted actor Marlon Brando to play the character, wearing blackface. Billy Dee Williams recalled he found this “hysterical but a little bit interesting,” adding:

“You don’t 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 you’re good at using your imagination, you can do some really interesting stuff without doing the obvious to achieve whatever it is you’re trying to achieve.”

Having said that, he added how he always considered all his characters as individuals and never differentiated based on their skin tones.