Robert Downey Jr. Says His 'Black Friends' Praises His Blackface in 'Tropic Thunder'
DreamWorks Pictures
Movie

In the 2008 Ben Stiller-directed satirical movie, the 'Avengers: Endgame' actor portrayed a black character named Kirk Lazarus, a role that earned him an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination.

AceShowbiz - Robert Downey Jr. has no regret donning a blackface in "Tropic Thunder". In a recent appearance on "The Joe Rogan Podcast", the "Avengers: Endgame" actor was talking about him having a blackface while portraying character named Kirk Lazarus in the comedy flick.

"My mother was horrified," Downey Jr. said about the 2008 Ben Stiller-directed movie. " 'Bobby, I'm telling ya, I have a bad feeling about this.' I was like, 'Yeah me too, Mom.' When Ben called and said, 'Hey I'm doing this thing' – you know I think Sean Penn had passed on it or something. Possibly wisely. And I thought, 'Yeah, I'll do that and I'll do that after 'Iron Man'."

"Then I started thinking, 'This is a terrible idea, wait a minute.' Then I thought, 'Well hold on dude, get real here, where is your heart?' " he shared. "My heart is…I get to be black for a summer in my mind, so there's something in it for me. 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."

Robert then pointed out that while the satirical movie was bound to rub some people the wrong way, the flick earned overwhelmingly positive response. "[Ben] 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," the "Dolittle" star explained.

He also said that he even got praises from "90 percent of my black friends," who told him, "Dude, that was great." He continued, "I can't disagree with [the other 10 percent], but I know where my heart lies. I think that it's never an excuse to do something that's out of place and out of its time, but to me, it blasted the cap on [the issue]."

"I think having a moral psychology is job one. Sometimes, you just gotta go, 'Yeah I effed up.' In my defense, 'Tropic Thunder' is about how wrong [blackface] is, so I take exception," he added.

For his portrayal of black character Kirk Lazarus in the movie, Robert earned an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

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