Given that there is nothing new under the sun, this is the age of reinvention. We’ve dug deep into the annals of filmmaking to revive techniques, styles, and stories that were used long ago - but even that well is starting to run dry. What to do?

If you’re Ben Stiller, the thing to do is the unthinkable. Something that’s been taboo for decades. And, naturally, you need just the right actor to do it.

Coming this summer, we’ll all be able to see Robert Downey Jr….in blackface.

Not minstrel show blackface, of course - honest-to-goodness dyed authentic-looking blackface. He’s not actually playing a black character, but an actor so method that he changes the color of his skin to more effectively capture the essence of his role. The film, Tropic Thunder, also features Jack Black and Ben Stiller as actors in a Vietnam war movie who find themselves thrust into a real war.

RDJ doesn’t feel the need to be defensive about his part. “If I didn’t feel it was morally sound, or that it would be easily misinterpreted that I’m just C. Thomas Howell, I would’ve stayed home.”

(Wikipedia also helpfully points out that “test screenings for African-American viewers have had positive responses,” which might actually be more insulting than the film could ever hope to be. It’s okay, guys, you don’t have to be offended! The rest of your people weren’t!)

You may also remember Tropic Thunder as the film that Owen Wilson dropped out of after his suicide attempt. Oh, and those pictures of a balding Tom Cruise in a fatsuit? Yeah. Tropic Thunder.

If nothing else, people will be drawn by curiosity. I know I am!

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Categories: Movie stories //