To prepare for his role in the currently-nameless Han Solo movie, Donald Glover met with Star Wars legend Billy Dee Williams to ask for advice with how to portray Lando Calrissian. Williams emphasized one thing in particular – charm the audience, and you’ve got the part down.
Glover took a moment in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter to explain what it was like when he got to sit down to speak with the OG Lando actor. Williams gave Glover one crucial bit of advice:
“I was like, ‘I’ve always felt like this character could do this, and he represents this, and I kind of feel like he comes from here, and it’s very obvious he has a lot of taste, so maybe he grew up seeing that from afar? Because I’m like that. Maybe he saw it from other planets and was like, ‘I want to be that.’ He just let me ramble on and on, and then finally I was like, ‘So, what do you think?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I don’t know about all that. Just be charming.’”
An earlier interview with Williams showed that the elder actor shared his admiration for the person playing the younger version of his character:
“He’s a very delightful young man, I must say. We had a very nice lunch and we talked for a very long time and it was very easy. He had questions about [Lando]. I guess he was doing what normal actors do, they just want to find out what direction they want to take so they gather their information. So, we just sat and talked, and I didn’t want to impose on anything he wanted to do — he’s got his own ideas, I would imagine. I know he has his own ideas. He’s a very talented young man. In fact, I was listening to some of his music [Childish Gambino, Glover’s musical alter ego] and it’s pretty good stuff.”
Glover has a substantial following of his own due to his role on Community, and as such the actor should hopefully slip into the role of Lando Calrissian quite nicely. Hopefully, we’ll get to see Billy Dee Williams play Lando Calrissian one more time in Star Wars Episode IX, since it seems like he’s not going to be in The Last Jedi.
The untitled Star Wars Han Solo spin-off is scheduled for a May 25, 2018 release date. Its cast includes Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, Michael K. Williams, Ian Kenny, and Warwick Davis.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
