Downey Jr. appeared in the 2008 satirical comedy Blackface

Robert Downey Jr.’s Tropical thunder According to director, co-writer and star Ben Stiller, this character is a big reason the film probably couldn’t be made today.

“Obviously it’s just harder to make a more edgy comedy in this environment,” he said Severance pay said the director Collider in a recently published interview. “But yeah, the idea of ​​Robert playing this character playing an African-American is incredibly sensitive. Of course, even back then it was tricky.”

In the 2008 satirical comedy, Downey Jr. plays a white Australian actor who undergoes “pigment change” surgery to play a black character. The Iron Man The star appears throughout the film in blackface makeup, a wig, and speaks in the African-American vernacular of English.

“The only reason we tried it was because I felt like the joke was very clear in terms of who it was about – actors who will do anything to win awards,” Stiller said Collider. “But now, in this environment, I honestly don’t even know if I would have dared. I’m honest.”

For the supporting role, Downey Jr. received nominations for the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Award.

Over the years, Stiller and Downey Jr. have been behind the controversial film, which also drew backlash at the time of its release for its disrespectful treatment of people with intellectual disabilities. They’ve said that many times Tropical thunder mocked actors who used insensitive and offensive stereotypes.

“I can expose to nature the insane, self-absorbed hypocrisy of artists and what they think they’re allowed to do on occasion,” Downey Jr. said of his role during an appearance on ” The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast in 2020.

“Tropical thunder is about how wrong (blackface) is,” he claimed.

In the same interview, the actor recalled thinking, “I’m going to be black in my mind for a summer, so there’s something in it for me,” when Stiller approached him about appearing in the film.

“I don’t apologize for it Tropical thunder“,” Stiller wrote in a 2023-X post. “The film has always been a controversial film since we premiered. I’m proud of it and the work everyone did on it.”

Most recently in a January 2024 episode by Rob Lowe Literally! Downey Jr. on the podcast told the host, “The spirit that Stiller directed, cast and shot Tropical thunder “In” was basically a diatribe against all these tropes that aren’t right and have been perpetuated for too long.”

The film grossed more than $195 million at the box office