In an interview with Joe Rogan for his popular podcast released Wednesday, superstar actor Robert Downey Jr. explained why he ultimately chose to take on the role of self-important actor “Kirk Lazarus” for Ben Stiller’s 2008 comedy “Tropic Thunder,” a role that included Downey dressed for most of the film in blackface and doing a hilariously bad impersonation of an African-American man as imagined by an egotistical Hollywood A-lister.
Asked by Rogan if he could make a film like “Tropic Thunder” today, Downey suggestively responded, “Oh, you could do it …,” a line that drew a big laugh out of the host (video below).
“Tropic Thunder,” Downey explained, reminded him of his father’s 1969 dark satire, “Putney Swope,” about a “token black man” on the executive board of an advertising firm who is accidentally put in charge and then gets a chance to reshape the corrupt company and, in the process, is forced to “confront his own corruption.”
When Stiller contacted him about playing the role, Downey said, he was initially enthusiastic, then began doubting the decision. “I thought, yeah, I’ll do that, and I’ll do that after ‘Iron Man’,” said Downey. “Then I started thinking, this is a terrible idea!”
“Then I thought, hold on, dude, get real here. Where is your heart?” said Downey. “And my heart is, A, I get to be black for a summer, in my mind … So there’s something in it for me.”
Having gotten another big laugh out of Rogan, Downey got to what he made clear was his true motivation for taking on the role: “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,” he said.
Downey also pointed to having a chance to work with Stiller, for whom he has immense respect, and who Downey praised for handling the inevitably “offensive nightmare of a movie.”
“And also Ben, who is a masterful artist and director — probably the closest thing to a Charlie Chaplin that I’ve experienced in my lifetime — he writes, he directs, he acts,” said Downey. “If you had seen him when he was directing this movie, you would have been like, ‘I’m watching David Lean, I’m watching Chaplin, I’m watching Coppola.’ He knew exactly what the vision for this was; he executed it. It was impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie — and 90% of my black friends were like, ‘Dude, that was great.'”
Asked about the other 10%, Downey said, “I can’t disagree with them, but I know where my heart was,” adding that he knows that’s “never an excuse to do something that is out of place and not of its time.”
Rogan responded by suggesting that, unless people’s sensitivity on the issue changes, the film might be “the last time” we see black face in humor again. “We almost lost the Prime Minister of Canada because he did brown face, he pretended to be Saudi Arabian,” Rogan added, referencing the Justin Trudeau scandal.
“It’s an interesting and necessary meditation on where is the pendulum, why is the pendulum right, where is the pendulum maybe cutting a little into what could be perceived as heart-in-the-right-place openness of its time,” said Downey. “There’s a morality clause here, on this planet, and it’s a big price to pay. And I think having moral psychology is job one.”
Video below via the “Joe Rogan Experience”: