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ROBERT DOWNEY JR. PLAYS A BLACK MAN IN NEW FILM: Satire stars celeb as a white actor cast to play African American role.
*Ben Stiller's upcoming film "Tropic Thunder" was previously known as the project that Owen Wilson had to leave due to his reported suicide attempt. On Thursday, the movie became known as the flick that features Robert Downey Jr. as a black man.
Co-written, directed and produced by Stiller, the film is described as a satire of the entire acting profession. Downey Jr. stars as Kirk Lazarus, a character crafted by Stiller to poke fun at Hollywood's overly-committed actors. As seen in a photo from the production released yesterday, Lazarus, a white man, is cast in the role of a black soldier.
Stiller told Entertainment Weekly he was "trying to push it as far as you can within reality," with the intent of satirizing over-the-top actors, not African-Americans. "I had no idea how people would respond to it." But at a recent screening, black viewers liked the film, he said.
"If it's done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago," Downey said. "If you don't do it right, we're going to hell."
The studio plans to debut the trailer online March 17. In one scene, Lazarus tries to bond with a real African-American cast mate by quoting the theme song from "The Jeffersons."
Downey told EW that he is confident he never crossed the line.
"At the end of the day, it's always about how well you commit to the character," he says. "I dove in with both feet. If I didn't feel it was morally sound, or that it would be easily misinterpreted that I'm just C. Thomas Howell in [Soul Man], I would've stayed home."
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