Billy Dee Williams defends actors wearing Blackface

Billy Dee Williams believes actors should still be allowed to wear Blackface.

The Star Wars legend made the candid remark on Bill Maher's Club Random podcast during a discussion about Laurence Olivier wearing Blackface to play Othello in the 1965 film of the same name.

"When he did Othello, I fell out laughing," the 87-year-old said of Olivier. "He stuck his a*s out and walked around with his a*s, you know, because Black people are supposed to have big a*ses... I love that kind of stuff."

When podcast host Maher noted that white actors would never be allowed to "do that" nowadays, Williams replied, "Why?"

A shocked Maher responded, "Blackface?" and Williams stated, "Why not? You should do it. If you're an actor, you should do anything you want to do."

The comedian then noted that the Batman star once "lived in a period" where he "couldn't play the parts (he) should've played" because white actors in Blackface portrayed them.

"The point is that you don't go through life feeling like, 'I'm a victim,'" Williams explained. "I refuse to go through life saying to the world, 'I'm p**sed off.' I'm not gonna be p**sed off 24 hours a day."

Earlier in the conversation, the veteran actor discussed feeling confined as "a Black person" in Hollywood.

"If I'm going to be creative, let me be creative as an individualist," he shared. "I don't want to do anything based on this whole idea that you're a Black person, you're a white person and things of that nature. I'm an artist. I'm a creative entity in this life."