Billy Dee Williams shares thoughts about actors wearing black faces

Billy Dee Williams discusses his opinions on blackface worn by actors.

The renowned actor, who is 87 years old, spoke about the late English actor Laurence Olivier, who starred in the 1965 blackface version of Othello, on the Club Random podcast with Bill Maher.

"When he did Othello, I fell out laughing," Williams recalled.

“He stuck his ass out and walked around because Black people are supposed to have big asses...," Williams said in the podcast that premiered on Sunday, April 7. "I fell out laughing."

"And Bradley Cooper thinks he’s got a problem with the nose," said Maher, referencing the prosthetic nose Cooper wore in the movie Maestro to play the great composer Leonard Bernstein.

Williams chimed in, "I thought it was hysterical. I love that kind of stuff."

Maher continued the conversation and told Williams, "Today, they would never let you do that.”

When Williams queried "Why?", a shocked Maher responded, "Blackface?!"

Williams doubled down and told Maher, "He should do it," adding, "If you're an actor you should do anything you want to do."

Maher then indicated that Williams once "actually lived in a period where you couldn't do that. Where you couldn't play the part."

"But it didn't matter," rebutted Williams. "The fact is ... 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.”