‘This is not the era of the Minstrel Show’: Billy Dee Williams sparks online outrage after saying he doesn’t mind if actors do blackface

Actor Billy Dee Williams shocked his fans by expressing his opinion on actors wearing blackface, which is considered unacceptable in today’s climate and regarded a mockery of African Americans.

Williams is best known for his roles in the movies “Star Wars” and “Lady Sings the Blues.” He joined comedian Bill Maher’s podcast “Club Random with Bill Maher,” where they discussed British actor and film star Laurence Olivier wearing blackface in the 1965 film “Othello.”

The history of blackface dates back to minstrel shows in the mid-Nineteenth century, when white actors darkened their skin with shoe polish or a burnt cork, exaggerated their features, and wore tattered clothes to portray black people.

According to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, it was the first minstrel to introduce he imitated slaves living on southern plantations and portrayed them as lazy, ignorant, cowardly, or hypersexual.

Maher smoked marijuana while Williams, 87, sipped a glass of wine and a Colt .45 during the interview. Williams admitted that Olivier was also criticized for being “physical and doing things with his voice,” but when he saw Olivier as Othello, he thought it was funny .

“When he did Othello, I cried with laughter,” Williams recalled. “He stuck his ass out and walked around with his a—, you know, because black people are supposed to have big butts. …I thought it was hysterical. Love it. Love it. I love this kind of stuff.”

After Maher said actors couldn’t afford to wear blackface today, Williams pushed back and said that as performers, they need to have the option to play any role they need.

“If you’re an actor, you should do whatever you want,” he said. “As an actor, whatever you think you can do, you should be able to do it.”

Hollywood Unlocked shared clips from interview on Instagram, and fans welcomed Williams’ comments.

“He got old and now he just talks like that.” recorded one fan. “Sir, this is not the 19th century,” one other added. “Man, please… stop already. This is America!!!!”

“It’s crazy how old heads have gone soft in the face of disrespect towards their community. This is not the era of minstrel shows, nobody should feel comfortable in that shit. he replied one fan, while others joked that “the Dem Colt 45 beers impressed him the most.”

Other fans were just completely happy to learn that “What We Have Here?” the creator was still with us, but some weren’t surprised considering Williams “did an interview a few weeks ago where he said he was a brown actor, not a black actor.”

During Black History Month this February appeared on “The View,” where co-host Sunny Hostin asked about his experience working in Hollywood as a black actor.

“So you actually came out, as Whoopi (Goldberg) said, in an industry where there were very few people of color on TV and in movies,” she said, before Williams interjected, “Everyone is a people of color.”

Sunny replied, “Yes, well, a black man,” to which Billy corrects her, stating, “Well, a brown-skinned man.”

It’s almost secure to assume Williams was also interested in Robert Downey Jr., who wore blackface in 2008’s “Tropic Thunder.”

The film faced backlash at the time over Downey’s character, Kirk Lazarus, a cocky Australian actor dedicated to his craft who insisted on wearing an afro while adopting brown skin for the role. Producers defended the use of blackface in the film, saying it was satire – a form of humor that uses mockery to criticize human stupidity or views equivalent to racism.

Downey claimed that along with his performance, for which he received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, he wanted to show “tropes that are wrong and have been perpetuated for too long.”

The film’s director and star is also Ben Stiller defended this in X, stating that he “makes no apologies for Tropic Thunder. I do not know who told you that. Since its opening, this film has all the time been controversial. I’m proud of it and the work everyone did on it.

‘This is not the era of the Minstrel Show’: Billy Dee Williams sparks online outrage after saying he doesn’t mind if actors do blackface