Billy Dee Williams lauded for embracing multiple gender pronouns

The Skywalker Saga comes to an end later this month with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. This will wrap up the story of Rey, Kylo Ren, and the rest of the characters introduced into the sequel trilogy, but will also include some old friends, including Billy Dee Williams as the smooth-talking rebel fighter Lando Calrissian. You can see him back in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, clearly loving every minute of it, in the trailer:

We still don’t know exactly what role Lando will play in Rise, but Williams was philosophical about his return to the franchise. “You’re bringing something that helps move the vision that the director or producer or writer is looking for,” he told Esquire over a long lunch. “I’m there not only for myself, but I’m there to help them bring their project to life in a way that they’re looking for.”

Williams is famously charming, so we’re sure he’ll sparkle in whatever screentime he’s given. The only worry he had going in was about how long he’d been away from the Star Wars universe. “Do I have that same hunger, excitement, that I had years earlier?” he asked himself. “This is a very difficult time for me, as far as age is concerned. When you get to be a certain age, whether you want to think about mortality or not, you think about it.”

Whatever his age, Williams is an icon, having starred in a number of trail-blazing roles over the past several decades. And that doesn’t just include Lando. For example, Williams is most proud of his performance as Gale Sayers in the 1971 TV movie Brian’s Song. “It was a love story, really. Between two guys. Without sex. It ended up being a kind of breakthrough in terms of racial division.”

Still, Lando is the role he’ll always be best known for. While at this Disney’s latest D23 Expo, he hung out with the Rock and Jamie Foxx, both of whom acknowledged how big an influence Lando was on their careers. “The Rock calls me the OG,” Williams said. “What I presented on that screen people didn’t expect to see. And I deliberately presented something that nobody had experienced before: a romantic brown-skinned boy.”

His reputation preceded him even back then; he didn’t even have to audition for the part. “[The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner] knew I could pull off someone who was likable and charming,” Williams remembered. “The most interesting characters are those who are dubious . . . but you want the audience to really fall in love with them.”

And for the record, Williams isn’t mad at Lando for double-crossing Han and Leia. “He was up against Darth Vader. I don’t blame him for what he did.”

Williams is also familiar with some of the things the younger cast members have had to deal with online, namely racist and sexist criticism from trolls, and he’s long since found a way to deal with it. “You’re always going to have people making stupid comments,” he said. “One deals with indignities all the time. Do you sit around with vengeance in your soul? You can’t do that. I’m not forcing people to listen to my point of view, but if I can present it in some creative fashion—I’m the painter, tweaking, adding, contributing, putting in something that you haven’t thought about, maybe.”

In short, Williams is cool, and always has been. He’s not just an actor, either; he’s also an artist, a painter, and even designs his own clothes. It’s in that context, pontificating on the nature of cool, that Williams mentions that he’s not hung up on gender pronouns. “And you see I say ‘himself’ and ‘herself,’ because I also see myself as feminine as well as masculine,” he said. “I’m a very soft person. I’m not afraid to show that side of myself.”

That relaxed approach to gender norms is a pretty good fit for Lando, whom Solo co-screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan described as pansexual. “There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s (portrayal of Lando’s) sexuality,” he said.

Donald Glover, who played Lando in Solo, was on board too. “Yeah, he’s coming on to everybody,” he said. “It just didn’t seem that weird to me ’cause I feel like if you’re in space it’s kind of like, the door is open!”

"One thing that Billy did say was, be charming. [Lando is] eclectic. He likes different things. He’s somebody who goes around and tries everything, and I just didn’t think about it that much."

Esquire pointed out to Williams that Glover had been talking about the character having that kind of fluidity, and Williams didn’t miss a step. “Really? That kid is brilliant—just look at those videos.”

People have drilled down on this part of Williams’ interview, with him getting plenty of accolades online:

I dunno if Williams is “coming out” as gender fluid or non-binary in any kind of formal sense here, but it’s definitely cool to see someone in the public eye celebrating the complexity of their gender, and not getting bent out of shape about pronoun use. “I never tried to be anything except myself,” Williams said. “I think of myself as a relatively colorful character who doesn’t take himself or herself too seriously.”

The Rise of Skywalker comes out in theaters on December 20. Is that the last we’ll see of Lando? “Certainly it depends on how much money is generated,” Williams said. “That’s when they determine where’s the conclusion. The one thing about show business, you can resurrect anything.”

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