Tropic Thunder blackface defended by Robert Downey Jr, is still proud of the movie

Poor decisions always come back to haunt us, only most of us aren’t famous actors whose entire catalogue of work can be pulled up at a moment’s notice. Yet, Robert Downey Jr appears unphased by the latest backlash regarding his role in Tropic Thunder.

I can’t say I’ve thought of the 2008 film since its release, but many have, with the film garnering attention over Downey Jr’s use of blackface. The Ben Stiller comedy sees Downey Jr play the role of Kirk Lazarus, an Australian method actor who undergoes pigmentation surgery to darken his skin.

See what you think of the performance in the Tropic Thunder trailer

As much as the comedy defence can be used here, it’s understandable that people keep returning to this obvious sticking point. However, Downey Jr still insists he’s proud of the role.

“I thought 'Yeah I'll do that, I'll do that after Iron Man' and then I started thinking 'This is a terrible idea, wait a minute',” revealed Downey Jr in a 2023 interview. "Then I thought 'Hold on dude, get real here where is your heart' and my heart is: A, I get to be black for a summer in my mind, so that’s 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.”

We have to say that some of the Marvel actor’s reasons here feel incredibly thin and tasteless (we're referring to the first reason given), and still fails to properly address why some viewers are upset.

More recently, he defended the film again, saying, “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.”

Downey Jr continued, "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."