Mar 5 2008First Look at 'Tropic Thunder', RDJ as C. Thomas Howell
In the seven years since directing Zoolander, Ben Stiller has had a lot of time to decide the next ego-driven profession to lance with the blunt skewer of broad comedy. With Tropic Thunder, Stiller transitions from male models to the realm of self-important actors, and has replaced the intense model-stare he so frequently employed with a new face: blackface. Yes, if the black man in above image looks familiar, it's because that's RDJ:
Robert Downey Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, a very serious Oscar-winning actor cast in the most expensive Vietnam war epic ever filmed. Problem is, Lazarus's character, Sgt. Osiris, was originally written as black. So Lazarus decides to dye his skin and play Osiris, um, authentically.
It's obviously dangerous territory, but Stiller assured Entertainment Weekly that he "recently screened a rough cut for African-Americans, and was relieved at the reaction." Stiller also informed the magazine that he's now allowed to use "the N-word" because he's got this black friend, and he's totally cool with it.
Does Jack Black look like a fat version of the villain from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? to anyone else?
Stiller's new comedy [EW]
Reader Comments
1. Colin - March 5, 2008 1:08 PM
When the hell did Robert Downey Jr's name become RDJ? And why the hell do you assume ANYONE would know that?
2. Dvq - March 5, 2008 1:26 PM
looks fucking amazing haha, cant wait!.
3. sam - March 5, 2008 1:41 PM
damn. that's Jack Black??!
i seriously thought, 'they got Philip Seymour Hoffman for this? might not be that bad, then.'
btw, good job, RDJ. good job.
btw, can i lynch Stiller even if i'm not black?
oh, it's not for the black face thing; just for a general sense of justice. thanks.
4. Emily - March 5, 2008 1:47 PM
Yes, he absolutely does look like the villain from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? That's a little creepy.
5. Morley - March 5, 2008 1:56 PM
bill hader is in this movie. enough said. it will be awesome.
6. high5apparatus - March 5, 2008 1:56 PM
That's Jack Black? JB? No way... I thought it was the "I Sharted" guy from Along Came Polly.
7. Codius - March 5, 2008 3:48 PM
I thought that was Don Cheadle.
8. JagedNS - March 5, 2008 6:35 PM
can't wait to not see this one. A Ben Stiller movie excites me almost as much as an Iron Man movie.
9. JagedNS - March 5, 2008 7:36 PM
marcjl? really? dayam that's cool. I'll go right over and check that out. lol ..take your spam somewhere else.
10. matteblender - March 5, 2008 8:04 PM
Am I the only one to assume that was Don Cheadle in the middle, at first glance?
11. Anon - March 6, 2008 11:38 AM
I wonder if when they made that waynes film where those two black men dresed up as two white women they held a special screening for white women?
Thought not.
12. c - March 6, 2008 1:57 PM
Does Jack Black look like a fat version of the villain from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? to anyone else?
YES those little round glasses totally make it.
13. Mike Belgrove - March 7, 2008 12:14 PM
One of the other writers on Highbrid Nation wrote about Robert Downy playing a black man in Tropical Thunder. He worries that Al Sharpton might have something to say about it, lol. Honestly as a black person I think it's kinda cool that movie make-up has gotten to the point where you can make someone look like another race and if the pics I've seen of Robert Downy in costume are accurate than they did a really good job! Plus Robert is a very capable actor so I'm sure he wont come across as stereo typical or offensive. I could be wrong though.
14. Leif Jones - March 8, 2008 12:58 PM
I think on a higher level this could possibly be a comment on Coppala’s overrated APOCALYPSE NOW, which became more than a movie to the people involved - being filmed in 1970s Cambodia was too close to the reality of the story and fucked with everyone’s heads.
I’ve watched Anthony Hopkins play Othello in “blackface” and he did an excellent job. The fact that this could be un-PC just shows how timid modern society is about offending black people (but its okay for the Wayans brothers to play WHITE CHICKS). Anti-racism is, in itself, racism.
And his name has, is, and always will be, pronounced Are Dee Jay, yo.