Billy Dee Williams slammed after supporting Blackface in movies

Actor Billy Dee Williams has come under fire after his comments defending actors doing Blackface went viral.

Billy Dee Williams is a pretty respected actor in Hollywood as many fans still praise him for his role as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise to this day.

However, Williams has found himself in a bit of a pickle lately as his comments defending actors doing Blackface went viral and fans were not happy about it.

While appearing on an episode of Club Random With Bill Maher, Williams spoke candidly on why he thinks Blackface should be allowed in modern Hollywood by referencing Laurence Olivier’s infamous Blackface performance in Othello.

“When he did Othello, I fell out laughing,” Williams said, “He stuck his ass out and walked around because Black people are supposed to have big asses.”

When Maher pointed out that the act of Blackface could never be done today, Williams responded, “Why not? You should do it If you’re an actor, you should do anything you want to do.”

The actor continued stating, “The point 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.”

Unsurprisingly, some of Williams’ fans didn’t take this opinion well as one fan tweeted, “….I just gotta ask…what would possess a man to say something this f*cking stupid?”

Another fan expresses worry about the implications of Williams’ words writing, “Let’s not set our race back 100 years please,” while a third simply tweeted, “Get Lando outta here man.”

However, some of Williams’ jumped to his defense by referencing Robert Downey Jr.’s character in Tropic Thunder.

Downey famously played an Australian actor doing Blackface and the actor himself has defended the decision to do it because it was an attempt to fight back against tropes “that aren’t right.”