Robert Downey Jr. Plays Black Man In New Film

Entertainment Weekly:

If you don't recognize that African-American actor standing between Jack Black and Ben Stiller, there's a good reason: He's white. In Tropic Thunder, an epic action comedy co-written and directed by Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, a very serious Oscar-winning actor cast in the most expensive Vietnam War film ever. Problem is, Lazarus's character, Sgt. Osiris, was originally written as black. So Lazarus decides to dye his skin and play Osiris, um, authentically. Funny? Sure. Dangerous? That's an understatement. ''If it's done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago,'' Downey says. ''If you don't do it right, we're going to hell.''

The film marks Stiller's first directing effort since 2001's Zoolander. With Thunder (opening Aug. 15), he takes aim at the sweetest target of all: actors. Downey plays one of a team of self-indulgent stars cast in the modern equivalent of Apocalypse Now. Stiller plays an action hero who has just adopted a baby from Asia but worries that ''all the good ones are gone.'' Black portrays a comedian known for performing multiple roles in a single film -- his latest is called The Fatties: Fart 2. But when the film's director (Steve Coogan) and writer (Nick Nolte) get fed up with their prima donna cast, they drop them into the jungle to fend for themselves. The actors think they're doing some sort of full-immersion filmmaking, but the danger they're in is very real.

Read the whole story: Entertainment Weekly

Comments

[Eric8869]

Is he going to sing "mammy" in the middle of the film?

[wayoutleft]

this will give us an overdue chance to re-evaluate "the deer hunter" and "apocalypse now" as the lugubrious, ethnocentric overblown comedies they are.

[johnnyjust]

This is an outrage to all mankind.....Ben Stiller made another movie?

[Matango]

Okay, so Eddie Murphy can play a Chinese man, a Jewish Man, an overweight woman, but this is somehow dangerous?

[bookon]

Do HuffPo hire the chyron writers for Faux News to write their headlines??? He is playing a WHITE GUY PLAYING A BLACK GUY.

The headlines here are getting more misleading by the day.

[bookon]

Obviously I meant “DID HuffPO”

[MajorKong]

Stiller looks surprisingly buff in that picture. They should have cast him to play Rambo. He would have been even funnier than Stallone.

[StanTheManic]

" ... epic action comedy co-written and directed by Stiller. "

Nuff said.

It. Won't. Be. Funny.

It must be difficult, when you're SUPPOSED to be a comedian and you're not even as funny as YOUR MOM AND DAD!!!

[AndriaSmith]

OMG. He is a genius. An amazing artist. Outstanding as Charlie Chaplin. This is so incredible.
He never ceases to amaze me. He goes not to the limit, but beyond. Robert Downey Jr. is also an excellect politician. You should see his film "The Last Party" iuf you haven't already. It is his own documentary. It was excellent. Good Luck Robert wherever you are. Good Luck with your new movie in May - Ironman. Should be a huge blockbuster.

[tiedtothewhippingpost]

he did wake up in an underage girls bed high on drugs

[TheWesternBreed]

If the Wayans bros could portray a couple of (oversized) blonde Hilton-sisters clones in WHITE CHICKS, this should be okay.

[AAnon]

He is playing it well visually. I have a hard time seeing him in the make-up.

Love the B. Stiller movies. They are silly and entertaining.

[GQTaste]

Can't wait to hear the pol. correct folk up in arms over this. I also thought the third dude was Phillip Seymour Hoffman, not Jack Black. But rest assured, some on here will go nuts over Downey putting on the face paint.

[strifeknot]

It's got Stiller in it, which is reason enough to pay it no mind. The only thing he was remotely tolerable in was The Royal Tenenbaums.

[catchdis]

i agree.

gosh, i wish ben stiller would retire. it's painful watching him.

[Wintergreen4President]

Amen! I thought I was the only one out there who was turned off by Stiller, Adam Sandler and all the man-child slacker types they play in every film. It's not only painful watching them, it's embarassing to see adult males glorifying overage teenagers and expecting us to find their juvenile antics funny. Downey, on the other hand, seems to be a very courageous actor, he makes interesting choices and isn't stuck in playing one character type. Yes, he had a serious addiction problem and, against all odds, overcame it. I think that's admirable.

[sussex]

Jerry Stiller is a funny, talented man. Unfortunately his son ........not so much.

[aristippe]

Downy rocks! I laughed so hard when he was found alseep in a strangers house.

[drumz]

Stiller and Downey are two of my favorite actors. I can't wait to see this one!