Billy Dee Williams interviewed for Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight
- "I really wanted desperately to do, obviously, Two-Face. I was hoping it would segway into that."
- ―Billy Dee Williams[src]
Billy Dee Williams (born Apr 06, 1937) is the actor who played Harvey Dent in Batman. Williams signed on with intention of playing Two-Face in a sequel, but was replaced in the role by Tommy Lee Jones for Batman Forever.
Williams' likeness is used for Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the comic series Batman '89, which serves as a sequel to Batman Returns in a new branching timeline.
Quotes[]
Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent in Batman.
On playing Harvey[]
- "I was looking to create a kind of flamboyant guy, a guy who's bigger than life. I had Adam Clayton Powell in mind when I played the character. He was not only a politician, but he was reverend, a preacher and he was a playboy. You talk about a romantic character."
- "I was happy when I was asked to participate. You know, I always feel good about that because it's saying people, when they see me, as an individual, an actor, they're not looking at me based purely on my ethnicity, but looking at a certain quality I might bring to a situation. So that made me feel very very good."
On Michael Keaton[]
- "Michael Keaton has a quality when I watch him, when I watch him as a performer, as personality and even working with him, when I was watching him - he has three qualities. He has a comic quality, there's a vulnerability, there's also something underneath. You feel there's something underneath going on. There's a mystery there."
On playing Two-Face[]
- "I really wanted desperately to do, obviously, Two-Face. I was hoping it would segway into that. And that's what I wanted to do, I wanted to see what I could do with it. It would've been different than Tommy Lee's. I got my own kind of madness. In fact, people would write about it, [sic] say "Dang, Billy Dee should be doing it." But, you know, that's the way life is. That's showbiz baby."