"Tropic Thunder" Stars On Fame, Comedy And Blackface

NTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This movie mercilessly ridicules the self-important aspects of acting. Ben, you were telling me earlier that there's nothing actors love more than to sit around telling stories about other actors behaving like jerks.
JACK BLACK: But not in an interview!
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: Literally, I once heard an actor say, ''This whole process -- us trying to shoot this scene -- this is garbage. We need to put on animal masks and get primal with each other, and then we'll understand who really has the status in this scene. I've got the masks.''
BEN STILLER: Wow.
DOWNEY: I remember looking at this dude and going, ''You brought animal masks? You honestly think your, like, improv summer-stock idea is going to break it open for me? We've got money on the line. I'm not going to put on rabbit ears and figure out who's king of the forest.''
BEN STILLER: I remember being in a car scene with a jaded actor who pulled out a flask: ''It's 4 o'clock. Time for a little nip.''
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: [To Stiller] But you've never worked drunk or loaded?
STILLER: Um, no.
DOWNEY: Liar.
STILLER: I haven't! Just out of fear of screwing up.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[theJuanStar]

I urge everyone to see the trailer for this film. You have access to the internet obviously. Robert Downey Jr. is not in Blackface to play the part in the film. The character he plays in the movie, is a White actor. In order to play the part in a movie, he gets his skin darkened. The movie lampoons Hollywood and his character is a representation of how far actors will go to portray a role.

[shakker]

Wearing a darker makeup on your face is not blackface. My daughter dyes people's hair different colors every day often blond or red when that is not ethnically correct. She has also dyed hair to colors no one could have naturally. Many actors wear make up to be prettier, uglier or use optical effects and weird camera angles to be taller or shorter. Was Olivier in blackface when he played Othello on the stage? Was that an insult to anybody? Does every actor that wears a wig insult baldness?

Blackface is when a white guy was made up to be a buffoon caricature of what racists thought black people aught to look and act like. I have not seen the movie but it can't be much worse than when Tony Curtis played a Roman soldier with a New York accent. Was Curtis anti-Italian? anti Roman? The clip I saw was not Blackface.

[ms.understood]

Out of all the black actors in Hollywood and they would rather pay a white guy to play one? What an insult. This is not artistic at all, it's trash.

[ThoughtAboutIt]

Have you seen the movie or is this just a knee-jerk reaction. America will never become "post-racial" when people overreact to anything and everything even remotely related to race.

[robXdion]

"Post-racial" doesn't mean you're free to mock and insult other ethnicities. Why do so many whites fight so hard for the right to be offensive a**holes and get mad when called on it? Let someone continuously call you a slur and see how long you can take it. Your mentality is the privileged position of the majority. You have a right to be a jerk. But others reserve the right to point it out and be p**sed. You obviously haven't "thought" about THAT, have you?

[theJuanStar]

You are aware that it's a movie in a movie. Robert Downey's character is a White actor who is cast as a Black actor in the movie. The clips I have seen are quite well done. It's always best to judge after you've seen a piece.

[ms.understood]

First of all, I can judge all I want to and don't have to see the movie because the fact remains that he is in Blackface. It's funny that your handle is "juan" probably meaning hispanic, in which on this topic, you should have nothing to say because there is no such thing as "Hispanicface." Once your people have been disrespected for more years than one would like to remember, then maybe you can comment on something that you would then know about. Until then, be quiet.

[Fudgefase]

I honestly didn't recognise RDj when I saw the trailer.

[gloriar8]

I moved to L.A. from florida. Before I got here, I didn't realize how few people here don't get lot's of concepts that the regular people get. I.E., black face, this is one of the most derogatory things they could do to insult blacks and ensure they won't make alot of money. Last year during the Oscars the best film awards went to foreign films. They still don't get that people want substance. If they can make a dollar, it doesn't matter how they do it. I will never watch another movie from any of these so called stars. Idiots!

[robXdion]

They live in a white and jewish bubble that skews their understanding of others. Many of the studio heads were reared in an era when it was OK to demean blacks. They don't get it.

[barackobama4prez]

When I saw the previews of him in blackface to play a black actor I was immediately offended...but then why did I laugh? I think it may be funny...but probably a bad idea in such a racial environment. Not sure yet until i see more whether it was a racist, tacky or funny idea.

[ABCD]

OMG - Blackface? Now I know for sure I will not be watching this movie. No thank you - I will keep my money!

[uheardme]

Blackface is making a comeback...first Angelina, now this.

That said, if you didn't know it was Robert Downey Jr, you would think he was a brother. I'll pass judgment after watching the movie.

[Cakey4814]

I know robXdion..this sounds like a lot of money for naught..ain't nothing funny about appearing in Blackface..the timing couldn't have been worse and I'm a Stiller fan..no more..

[robXdion]

This idiot said, "tarred and feathered". Downey doesn't realize that being tarred and feathered went hand and hand with lynching blacks from the 1870s to the 1940s. I don't know who greenlighted this but blackface is very insulting. Expect protests.

[Fudgefase]

JDj is no idiot. I suspect he would know what he said and is trying to stir up publicity.
It was, however, an unwise remark.