It wasn’t just Chewie who would have liked to talk to Lando about his action in Cloud City in the cloud bands of Bespin.
It really was a long time ago. So long that the majority of our readers weren’t even alive at the time, but it shaped the everyday life of actor Billy Dee Williams for a long time: the betrayal of his most famous role Lando Calrissian in Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
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The film was released in cinemas in 1980 and was a huge success, but Williams appeared as a wicked bon vivant and at least a coward – the boundaries between him and the role became blurred.
It wasn’t until three years later that his character would obviously be rehabilitated for everyone in the eyes of Han, Leia, Chewie and Luke. But even that offered Williams little protection from the fans’ anger.
Ahead of the imminent publication of his memoirs he describes his sometimes bitter experiences in the wake of the revolutionary space opera.
The accusation has accompanied him through his life ever since
When I picked up my daughter from school, the children would run up to me and say: You betrayed Han Solo!
I got on a plane and the flight attendant said: You betrayed Han Solo!
I experienced this for many years.
At some point, Billy Dee Williams’s regular confrontation with the topic led to a pattern of behavior becoming entrenched. Instead of defending himself and avoiding the situations, he came up with an argument – because for him Lando is by no means a traitor.
Rather, he saw the administrator caught in an insoluble dilemma, which he skillfully solved:
Look at the situation this way: you’re up against a pretty impressive character, Darth Vader, and then there’s Boba Fett. […] I had to negotiate with them to at least prevent the complete destruction of Han Solo and his friends. And? Did someone die? No, nobody died!
One thing should not be forgotten in this context: Lando Calrissian was in charge of Cloud City, he also had to protect his employees and their families. Billy Dee Williams therefore sees the end result as quite satisfactory. He managed to get out of this almost untenable situation without any deaths.
And in Return of the Jedi
After all, Lando actively helped free Han from his predicament with carbonite. Everything after that ended up becoming a legend of a time long ago in a galaxy far, far away.
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Now it’s your turn! How did you experience Lando’s betrayal when you first encountered Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back? Were you angry at the boss of Cloud City or did you immediately understand why he behaved this way and not differently? Feel free to share your perspective on this moral dilemma with us in the comments!
