Posted on 04/09/2024 3:09:13 PM PDT by Twotone
Billy Dee Williams said that he believes actors should be able to do what they want to do, including blackface. The comments were made on Bill Maher's show, "Club Random with Bill Maher."
Williams called attention to Laurence Olivier's performance in "Othello," where he wore blackface. "When he did 'Othello,' I fell out laughing. He stuck his a** out and walked around because black people are supposed to have big a**es."
Following the comments, Maher replied: "Today, they would never let you do that."
"Why?" Williams responded. "You should do it. If you're an actor, you should do anything you want to do."
"That's a great point of view, but the theater would be bombed," Maher replied back.
Williams mentioned that he refused to "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."
A recent example that the two brought up in the exchange was Bradley Cooper's prosthetic nose in last year's Oscar-nominated "Maestro." Cooper portrayed the famous conductor Leonard Bernstein, and he appears to have sported a fake nose that some denounced as anti-Semitic.
Non-Jewish people portraying Jewish people in performances has been characterized as "Jewface" by some.
Cooper responded to the claims when the film was released.
“I thought, ‘Maybe we don’t need to do it,'” Cooper said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “But it’s all about balance, and, you know, my lips are nothing like Lenny’s, and my chin. And so we had that, and it just didn’t look right [without the prosthetic].”
Despite some of the outrage, the Anti-Defamation League came to the film's defense, saying: “Throughout history, Jews were often portrayed in antisemitic films and propaganda as evil caricatures with large, hooked noses. This film, which is a biopic on the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is not that.”
Bernstein's three children — Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein — also came to Cooper's defense of the performance, per Variety.
“Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father. We were touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father’s music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration.”
“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts," the three continued. "It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well."
"Any strident complaints around this issue strike us above all as disingenuous attempts to bring a successful person down a notch — a practice we observed all too often perpetrated on our own father. At all times during the making of this film, we could feel the profound respect and yes, the love that Bradley brought to his portrait of Leonard Bernstein and his wife, our mother Felicia. We feel so fortunate to have had this experience with Bradley, and we can’t wait for the world to see his creation.”
A white playing a black role is racist? Yet a black playing a white role is not?
Wild idea, but maybe if you’re a non-actor as well?
In theatrical endeavors imitation is a form of flattery.
There is no law against black face...And I don’t think it offends anyone...Now the hoodies of KKK....while let’s not forget our “renowned” Senator who led the KKK...
When Billy Crystal was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, there was a routine he did a couple of times where he played an elderly Black blues singer, sitting on the front steps telling stories. The makeup job they did on him was incredible. He did not look like a White man in blackface. If you didn’t know who it was, you would think you were looking at an elderly Black man.
Bill Crystal’s Sammy Davis Jr. impression was priceless.
Williams makes a good point.
In reality, everyone COULD walk around 24 hrs a day and be pissed off. Everyone has stuff in their lives and past that they could fixate, overthink and obssess upon. Everyone.
And that would just make society completely unliveable.
The dems/libs/socialists run on negativity, division and hatred 24/7. They have to, as they use the hegelian dialectic for everything, which by default makes the status quo evil/awful in order to incrementally push their goals. There is always an enemy with them, so they constantly push that and also push their bs victimhood/false oppression garbage to foster the hatred and amp up their minions. So even when caught lying they rationalize by “the end justifies the means”.
Exactly. The first thing I thought on reading this article is that he has a really good attitude. Most everyone has a reason to feel “victimized” in this world. We just need to get over ourselves.
I can assure you, it offends many.
They’re laughing all the way to the bank....
Fair enough.
“When Black Celebrities Wore Blackface” -
https://daily.jstor.org/when-black-celebrities-wore-blackface/
“The True Lando”
“White Girls”
No backlash there...
Nobody got exercised when Eddie Murphy or the Wayans brothers wore “white face” for roles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_LeJfn_qW0
When Murphy did it on SNL, they even called it “comedy.”
(a lot of) black folks spend their days looking for something to get riled about.
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