The Billy Dee Williams Talk

We went..
we left after 15 minutes.

Was he ill/tired/jetlagged/'under the influence'/ or just didn't really care?

I also was talking to JED1 and his wife. She had waited for an autograph and wasn't impressed by him either.

So what was up with Billy Dee?

 

I spoke with the guy running his q - basically his plane landed at 9am, he started signing at 10am...right after a what - 12 hour flight through from LA? He was just whacked. I have to give him some credit for that and was very impressed he came back around 4:30 to sign about 40 autographs for some of us who had been waiting a half hour even though we were told he might not be coming back - cheers Billy!

But yes - he was whacked out and that made him a bit un-interacitve.

 

We were wondering - I mean, he started talking about his soap opera acting, mentioned singing, the audience applauded when the presenter asked if he would sing a bit, and he just said 'No'. That was around the point that we left. We ended up going to the Vader Helmet show instead.

 

I didn't go up for the talk as I was in something else - can't remember what now - too beat! Sounds like I didn't miss much!

 

He got plenty of applause when he came on but afer about 10 minutes people started bailing out. We lasted a bit longer. Quite frankly, I had really looked forward to seeing him but after 10 minutes I wished I had gone to the One Man SW show instead.

However, if he or the presenter had simply explained at the beginning about the flight and him being tired I might have been more forgiving. As it was, I heard many people asking what was wrong and speculating in the areas I mentioned previously.

 

Yeah, he was kinda slow today, not in a 'I can't be bothered' sorta sense, he was struggling for words and stuff, he just seemed to be outta it. I thought he might be tired, but I didn't realise how tight a schedule he was running. All credit to him, he did well considering.
The presenter guy, tho, and his team didn't do that well. When he asked for a specific picture of Lando it took three goes to get the right one. Did the guy prepare before his show? He had very little stuff for us to watch, too, I mean over on the celebrity stage, Warwick had video presentations, 'games' for his guests, and he was genuinely funny, but this guy was just... boring too.
All credit to Billy Dee, he was the only presentation I saw this weekend that involved talking for the entire hour, no videos or anything.

 

He was very subdued throughout. Its fair to say he's one of the actors who isn't really into the whole fandom thing. Although Mark Hamill reputedly isn't either, and he still managed to convey an appropriate amount of enthusiasm for the crowd.

I did feel sorry for the guys who asked specific questions about Lando's role and got minmal response. Still, Mr Williams did offer some insights into what interests him personally as an actor, and he proved that can belt out a pretty good tune as well (Just not when you ask him to).

 

He was like that at Jedi-Con too, even on the third day
Say no more

 

That's interesting to hear. I wanted to go to his talk and was disappointed that I missed it, but I guess I don't need to be. It's cool that he came out and did that talk even though he must have been exhausted, though. Too bad the reasons for his monosyllabic answers weren't explained better. Who was the interviewer at that one?

 

I'm glad I skipped his talk too, we didn't even attempt to go after he completely ignored us whilst getting his autograph, he could have at least said hello which doesn't take much energy! So far he is the most dissapointing SW actor I've ever met!

 

He shook my hand at the signing and said Hello.

I suspected he was very tired when I met him for the signing, and his talk wasn't great. It got better as it went on, his singing was good and he had some interesting things to say.

 

This is exactly how he acted at Celebration III. I went to the Q&A session, and his answers were mostly "yes", "no", or "I don't know". The host tried to elaborate on the questions for Billy in hopes he would be more responsive. The same "He was tired from a flight and busy schedule" excuse was used during C-III as well.

I just don't think he's really into the Star Wars fandom, unfortunately. I don't know why he keeps on coming then.

 

what's the saying? once is [somethingsomething], twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern?

because between Jedi-Con04, C3 (as the PAM just said) and CE it seems to be all the same

and because of that we looked at what the 1ManSWShow coincided with on all three days and picked the one we were interested in the least - and that was Billy Dee, immediately.

I love all his appearances in things like Scrubs, Lost, Fanboys, etc., but as a convention guest...

 

Was the talk on the sunday? I saw Billy Dee arrive at the Novotel on the saturday at about 1:30 in the afternoon - which means the 9am flight story is a crock of sith!

 

lol, the best part of his interview was when Billy Dee was asked:
"how long have Han and Lando been friends"
Long Pause.......
"8 years"
"ok, I think a lot of the books are going to have to be rewritten now"


meh, not the best interview, it had it's moments but overall he seemed like he wanted to be somewhere else, the questions he got weren't that great though, I do sympthathise with him on the constant questions like "Hey you are Black, and you were in Star Wars, what was it like being black and in Star Wars?", like he hasn't heard that like a million times before these last 30 years.

 

I havent seen him at CE, but he was pretty good at C4. The reason why I skipped him is because i assumed they would do the same kind of show as in LA. But truth is, in LA the host (forgot his name) also kind of carried the show, not Billy Dee.

 

The only person less interesting than Billy Dee was John Mollo

 

I got his auto a while ago in Milton Keynes. Same flight story IIRC. Managed to get a photo with him and a grunt after I spoke, but put me right off and we didn't bother with his talk at CE.

 

john mollo was great!
if asked the right questions...like any guest!