When it comes to fandoms like Star Wars, even Hollywood’s most beloved stars are not safe from the backlash if their characters behave in wicked ways. Actor Billy Dee Williams (86) knows this very well.
She recalls her confrontations with fans in her new memoir, What do we have here?, out February 13 from Knopf. His role as Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back had such an influence on Williams that he named his book after a related experience. “When I got the cloak [Lando wears in the film], I said, ‘This is fantastic!’ Williams told PEOPLE. “That’s the kind of thing I like to mess around with. I don’t take myself too seriously.”
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Billy Dee Williams and Harrison Ford in Star Wars.
Lucasfilm/Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock
In an exclusive extract from his new memoir, Williams recalls falling out of favor for a while for showing up to kill Han Solo at the end of the 1980s Star Wars film. Read — or listen — below.
Listen to Billy Dee Williams read the passage
Almost everywhere I went, fans called me out for betraying Han Solo. I got dirty looks on airplanes. “How could you?” The flight attendant scolded. At the grocery store, a man shopping with his teenage son gave me a disgusted look. “I should put you in the freezer,” he said, as his son nodded in agreement. The harshest reaction came on the playground at my daughter’s school. In the afternoon, while I was waiting in the yard to pick it [up], my parents looked at me grimly. Then, after the bell, I got the same treatment from [my daughter] Hanaka’s friends. “MR. Williams, you sold out Han Solo. Why did you do that? Now Han Solo is dead.”
It was funny until it wasn’t – until I felt something black and white brewing. Then I took a step back, put my hands up and told people to wait a minute before criticizing me further. I guess I did a good job playing Lando as a shady character. But Lando wasn’t a bad guy, I explained. Although it looked like he betrayed his best friend, the truth was that Lando found himself in the middle of a situation between Han Solo and Darth Vader. He had to stick to his own situation and buy time without contributing to the complete demise of his friend.
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Lando (Billy Dee Williams) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford).
Lucasfilm Ltd./20th Century Fox
It was an intricate, carefully choreographed scene, in which Lando seemed to give up on Han and Leia professed her love for the Rebel Alliance hero, who, despite the dire circumstances, calmly responded to her heartfelt confession with the familiar words: “I know.” What only a few people knew, and the rest of us found out much later, was that George created this incredible cliffhanger because Harrison was only signed on for the original and its sequel, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to play Han Solo again. George didn’t want to kill him in case he came back. So Han was put in the deep freeze – and I was labeled as the villain.
For more on Billy Dee Williams, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.
From What do we have here? © 2024, Billy Dee Williams. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this extract may be reproduced or reprinted without the written permission of the publisher.
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Source: HIS Education