Despite being such a controversial movie, Zoolander star Ben Stiller refused to apologise for his controversial part in Tropic Thunder.
The 2008 comedy stars Ben Stiller as Tugg Speedman, a failing actor trying to revive his career after suffering a movie flop, thus resulting in Tropic Thunder after playing the role of “Simple Jack”.
The films within a film contained several jokes that many found offensive, one in particular being Robert Downey Jr.’s character, Kirk Lazarus.
Method actor Lazurus, who wants to play a black sergeant, undergoes cosmetic surgery to make his skin appear darker for the role, which he gets criticized for as he remains in character both on and off camera.
The movie was heavily criticised and boycotted by disability activists.
Peter Wheeler, the Spokesman for the Special Olympics, spoke out at the time, encouraging people to not view the movie.
“We are asking people not to go to the movie and hope to bring a consciousness to people about using derogatory words about this population,” Wheeler said at the time.
“That will be the start of a nationwide protest.”
“We will continue to be vocal about the destructive effect of this film.”
Despite that, Stiller who also directed and co-wrote the hit movie took to twitter to reassure fans that he was “proud” of how the movie turned out and makes “no apologies.”
“I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder,” Stiller wrote.
“It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened.”
“Proud of it and the work everyone did on it.”
The movie aimed to poke fun of method actors who feel they can do whatever they want.
Downey Jr. explained while speaking to Joe Rogan on his extremely popular podcast that, despite having a bad feeling about starring in Tropic Thunder, he believed it was “impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie.”
“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.”
“Ben, who is a masterful artist and director… 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.”
“And 90% of my Black friends were like, ‘Dude, that was great.’”
