Ben Stiller Says Robert Downey Jr.'sTropic ThunderRole Would Have Been 'Incredibly Dicey' If It Were Released Today

Mar. 15, 2025

Ben Stiller in ‘Tropic Thunder’ in 2008.Photo:RGR Collection / Alamy Stock

RGR Collection / Alamy Stock

Robert Downey Jr.’sTropic Thundercharacter is a big reason the film probably couldn’t get made today, according to director, co-writer and starBen Stiller.

“Obviously, in this environment, edgier comedy is just harder to do,” theSeverancedirector toldColliderin a recently published interview. “But yeah, the idea of Robert playing that character who’s playing an African American character, I mean, incredibly dicey. Even at the time, of course, it was dicey too.”

In the 2008 satirical comedy, Downey Jr. stars as a White Australian method actor who has undergone “pigmentation alteration” surgery to play a Black character. TheIron Manstar appears throughout the film in Blackface make-up, a wig and speaking in African American Vernacular English.

Robert Downey Jr. in ‘Tropic Thunder’ in 2008.RGR Collection / Alamy Stock

“The only reason we attempted it was I felt like the joke was very clear in terms of who that joke was on — actors trying to do anything to win awards,” Stiller toldCollider.“But now, in this environment, I don’t even know if I would have ventured to do it, to tell you the truth. I’m being honest.”

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

“I get to hold up to nature the insane self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they think they’re allowed to do on occasion,”Downey Jr. said of roleduring an appearance onThe Joe Rogan Experiencepodcast in 2020.

Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller at the U.K. premiere of ‘Tropic Thunder’ in 2008.Dave Hogan/Getty

Dave Hogan/Getty

“Tropic Thunderis about how wrong [Blackface] is,” he asserted.

In that same interview, the actor recalled thinking that “I get to be Black for a summer in my mind, so there’s something in it for me” when Stiller approached him to appear in the film.

“I make no apologies forTropic Thunder,” Stiller wrote in a2023 X post. “It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it.”

More recently, on a January 2024 episode of Rob Lowe’sLiterally!podcast, Downey Jr. told the host that “the spirit that Stiller directed and cast and shotTropic Thunderin was, essentially, as a railing against all of these tropes that are not right and had been perpetuated for too long.”

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

source: people.com