Urban Thought Collective

Brandon T. Jackson makes his way to the top in “Tropic Thunder.”
“Tropic Thunder” storms into theaters with Brandon T. Jackson. Presented by Electronic Urban Report.

Big screen comedy “Tropic Thunder” hit theaters nationwide this week to some decently thunderous applause.

Turns out the early numbers have Tropic Thunder scoring an estimated $7.5 million on Wednesday, with expectations to take #1 for the weekend. The film stars Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., and Brandon T. Jackson as actors ready to start shooting a Vietnam War film, but incidentally find themselves forced to become the war heroes they are portraying.

Stiller, who directed, produced, and co-wrote the film, stars as Tugg Speedman, a mediocre action actor hoping for Oscar gold. On the other hand, Robert Downey Jr. pulls off the role of Kirk Lazarus, an award-winning superstar out to prove a little too much by playing a black man, as a white man.

As a true comedy, the fact that Downey is playing a role in black-face, isn’t the only controversial tone in the film. Stiller explained that while that was probably his biggest concern with the film’s acceptance, it is not a cultural faux pas, but more in line with the focus of the movie- a straight jab at actors.

“The whole idea of the movie is to make fun of actors and how far actors go; self-important actors; actors who want recognition; and the need for actors to be taken seriously,” Still described. “[With] Downey’s character, the idea was that he is the most respected actor of his generation – five Oscars; he’s looking for new challenges. We thought, comedically, ‘What would be the most wrong-headed thing an actor could do thinking how far he could go thinking he could pull something off?’ A white actor playing a black character in a movie, it’s just ridiculous and wrong. That was the idea with this character, leading up to the fact that this guy is so lost he doesn’t know who he is. Now he’s taken on this guy, he shouldn’t be playing this guy.”

Stiller found that there were two things that had to be incorporated into the film that would adequately and correctly clarify the purpose of the character. Those two things were a good white actor and a good African American actor.

“It was very important for us in the movie to have a black actor who is there all the time just calling him on it, saying this is ridiculous,” Stiller added, referencing young star Brandon T. Jackson. Furthermore, Stiller knew there were very few white actors who could pull the Lazarus character off.

“It is a dicey one and it could be interpreted the wrong way, so it was a really short list,” he said. “I knew it had to be a really good actor. It had to be somebody that was one of the most respected actors around, and Downey is that, but he also has a great sense of humor and a fearlessness and willingness to really go for it 100%. When we were doing it, we didn’t know if it would really work or not. We were just going to try to keep our intention of what the humor is coming through, which is making fun of the actors who take themselves too seriously.”

Stiller had all the confidence that Downey was the man for the job, but Downey himself admitted that he was a bit hesitant to take the role because of the possible controversy of playing a white man playing a black man….

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