Billy Dee Williams Says All Actors Should Be Allowed to Wear Blackface

Billy Dee Williams made his stance on actors in blackface clear ... saying he's all good with it, 'cause acting is acting -- and an actor should be able to do what they want in their craft.

The 'Star Wars' alum dished his thoughts on this during Sunday's episode of "Club Random" with Bill Maher -- this as he praised Laurence Olivier's performance in 1965's "Othello" ... in which the late star, who was white, wore blackface to play the titular lead.

Billy said Olivier's performance left him laughing out loud, because LO was lambasting stereotypes associated with Black folks -- and he says he found it humorous as opposed to offensive.

When Maher pushed back a bit -- noting you couldn't get away with that in this day and age -- Billy incredulously asks ... why not??? In his view, anyone should be able to rock blackface -- so long as it's in an acting capacity and it's meant to portray another character.

Billy and Bill get into a back and forth over the outrage expressed these days over this -- of course, many have called blackface incredibly racist, and it's widely seen as taboo -- and in the end ... Billy ends by talking about not wanting to live in a victimhood mentality.

It's an interesting chat for sure, and it sounds like BM and BDW found common ground.