Billy Dee Williams, who brought Lando Calrissian to life in Star Wars movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, recently made comments suggesting he identified as genderfluid. He has since clarified his recent statements, confessing that he wasn't even familiar with the term or definition.
"Well, first of all, I asked last night, I said, 'What the hell is gender fluid?' That's a whole new term," Williams told Out.com. "[W]hat I was talking about was about men getting in touch with their softer side of themselves. There's a phrase that was coined by Carl G. Jung, who was a psychiatrist, who was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud, and they had a splitting of the ways because they had different ideas about the… what do you call it? Consciousness. Unconscious. It's collective unconsciousness."
"But he coined a phrase that's, 'Anima animus,'" he continued. "And anima means that is the female counterpart of the male self, and the animus is the male counterpart of the female. I wasn't talking about sex. I wasn't talking about being gay or straight."
In the previous interview, he had explained how he says "himself" and "herself" because "I also see myself as feminine as well as masculine. I'm a very soft person. I'm not afraid to show that side of myself." Many took this to mean he identifies as genderfluid, though the above comment clarifies that this is not the case.
Williams, who will return in The Rise of the Skywalker, previously praised Donald Glover for his portrayal of a younger Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story. In Solo, Glover played Calrissian as a pansexual character, a detail that was woven into the story and confirmed by screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan.
Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong' o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Matt Smith, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant. The film arrives on Dec. 20.