Billy Dee Williams backtracks on gender fluid comments

Star Wars actor Billy Dee Williams has backtracked on comments suggesting he's gender fluid, insisting he didn't fully understand the term.

In an interview with Esquire magazine, the 82-year-old star, who first appeared in the hit science fiction franchise in 1980 movie The Empire Strikes Back, explained that he uses both male and female pronouns when referring to himself.

"I never tried to be anything except myself," he said. "I think of myself as a relatively colourful character who doesn't take himself or herself too seriously... And you see I say 'himself' and 'herself,' because I also see myself as feminine as well as masculine."

However, despite being praised for his "openness" by filmmaker friend J.J. Abrams, in a later interview with Undefeated he clarified his comments, insisting he was instead talking about "men getting in touch with their softer side of themselves".

"There's a phrase that was coined by Carl G. Jung, who was a psychiatrist, who was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud, and they had a splitting of the ways because they had different ideas about the... what do you call it? Consciousness. Unconscious. It's collective unconsciousness," he continued. "But he coined a phrase that's, 'Anima animus.' And anima means that is the female counterpart of the male self, and the animus is the male counterpart of the female. So that's what I was referring to."

He continued: "I was talking about men getting in touch with the female side of themselves. I wasn't talking about sex, I wasn't talking about being gay or straight... People should read (Jung). I mean, it would be an interesting education for a lot of people."

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, in which Billy reprises his role as Lando Calrissian, hits theatres 19 December.