He Gave Him the Green Light to Say the N-Word
Actor Burton Gilliam played Lyle, who was one of the bad guys. One of his lines in the script was for Lyle to call Sherrif Bart a racial slur. Because the word (as you may guess) was so sensitive, Burton didn’t feel comfortable saying it. Understandably so.
Source: YouTube
However, Cleavon Little understood that it was all in the art of the business, and gave Gilliam the green light to say it. However, Little did say this: “if I thought you would say those words to me in any other situation we’d go to fist city, but this is all fun. Don’t worry about it.”