Robert Downey Jr Tropical thunder character is a big reason why the film probably couldn’t be made today, according to director, co-writer and star Ben Stiller.

“It’s clear that in this environment, edgier comedy is just harder to make,” says the Disconnection director said Collider in a recently published interview. “But yeah, the idea of ​​Robert playing that character playing an African-American character, I mean, incredibly risky. Even then it was of course also risky.”

The 2008 satirical comedy stars Downey Jr. as a white Australian method actor who has undergone ‘pigmentation change’ surgery to play a black character. The Iron man star appears throughout the film in blackface makeup, a wig and speaks in African-American English.

“The only reason we tried it was because I felt like the joke was very clear in terms of who the joke was about – actors trying to do anything to win awards,” Stiller said. Collider. “But now, in this environment, I don’t even know if I would have dared to do it, to tell you the truth. I am honest.”

For the supporting role, Downey Jr. earned. Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

Over the years, Stiller and Downey Jr. backed the controversial film, which was also criticized for its disrespectful treatment of people with intellectual disabilities around the time of its release. They’ve said that before Tropical thunder was to satirize actors engaging in insensitive and offensive stereotypes.

“I can hold against nature the crazy, self-righteous hypocrisy of artists and what they think they’re allowed to do every now and then,” Downey Jr. said. about the role during a performance op The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast in 2020.

“Tropical thunder is about how wrong (Blackface) is,” he claimed.

In that same interview, the actor recalled thinking, “In my mind, I’m going black for a summer, so there’s something in it for me” when Stiller approached him to appear in the film.

“I make no apologies for it Tropical thunder” Stiller wrote in a 2023 X-post. “It has always been a controversial film since it opened. Proud of the work everyone has done on it.”

More recently, in a January 2024 episode of Rob Lowe’s Literal! podcast told Downey Jr. to the host that “the ghost who directed, cast and shot Stiller Tropical thunder essentially it was a protest against all these tropes that are wrong and have been perpetuated for too long.

The film earned over $195 million at the box office