Robert Downey Jr. defends controversial film Tropic Thunder against Blackface backlash

The Hollywood star has continued to defend the controversial film, in which he played a method actor wearing Blackface for a role.

Robert Downey Jr defends his role in Tropic Thunder in which he went Blackface. Picture: Paramount

Robert Downey Jr. has continued to defend the controversial 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder, in which he played a method actor wearing Blackface for a role.

Speaking to Rob Lowe on his podcast Literally, Downey maintained that the film was meant to criticise tropes they were seeing in Hollywood at the time, reports Decider.

“The spirit that [Ben] Stiller directed and cast and shot Tropic Thunder in was, essentially, as a railing against all of these tropes that are not right and [that] had been perpetuated for too long,” Downey said.

He also compared the film to Norman Lear‘s 1970s sitcom All in the Family, which included a disclaimer in each of its episodes that Downey says relates to the intentions they had with Tropic Thunder.

Robert Downey Jr has defended his controversial role in Tropic Thunder in which he went Blackface. Picture: Paramount

The actor said viewers should reacquaint themselves with the disclaimer, as it could act as “an antidote to this clickbait addiction to grievance that [people seem] to have with everything these days.”

As EW noted in their reporting, the full disclaimer included in All in the Family reads: “The program you are about to see is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show — in a mature fashion — just how absurd they are.”

Downey Jr starred alongside Jack Black and Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder in 2008. Picture: Paramount

“The language was saying, ‘Hey, this is the reason that we’re doing these things that, in a vacuum, you could pick apart and say are wrong and bad,’” Downey said on the podcast. “There used to be an understanding with an audience, and I’m not saying that the audience is no longer understanding — I’m saying that things have gotten very muddied.”

This isn’t the first time the actor has defended the film. In a 2020 interview with Joe Rogan, he said, “It was impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie, and 90 per cent of my Black friends are like, ‘Dude, that was great.’”

The actor won a 2024 Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for Oppenheimer. Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP

Though he went back and forth on his decision to star in the movie, Downey said he ultimately decided to listen to his “heart.”

“My heart is, a) I get to be black for a summer in my mind, so there’s something in it for me,” he said at the time. “The other thing is, 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 — just my opinion.”

Stiller similarly stood by the 2008 comedy, saying he is still “proud of it and the work everyone did on it.”

This article originally appeared in Decider and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Robert Downey Jr. defends controversial film Tropic Thunder against Blackface backlash