» Co-Star Says Downey Blackface is A-OK

Brandon T. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr.'s black (in real life) costar in Tropic Thunder, the movie in which Downey plays a white actor who undergoes a surgical procedure to make himself black, says that the controversial-ish role is fine with him. "When I first read the script, I was like, 'What? Black face?' But when I saw him (Downey Jr.) (act) he, like, became a black man.To be honest, he played a black dude better than anybody I've seen!" [SP]

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False Alarm

Here's the trailer for Tropic Thunder, the upcoming comedy starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Nick Nolte and Robert Downey Jr, who, as you can see, is featured in blackface.

We've been worrying for a couple weeks that the blackface element might ruin a perfectly bad movie, but – and we're loath to admit this – after watching the preview, we kinda, sorta don't mind the face paint anymore. We even giggled at the line, "Man, just because it's a theme song don't make it not true."

Crisis: what to hate on now? Where's our steadfast indignation? How about we get disgusted about a war comedy during actual wartime? Yeah, that's the ticket. War isn't funny.

Bad Ideas Turned Good

rdjblackfacedunno

Though we're still not sure we're 100 percent at ease with it, there are two mitigating factors to consider before getting angry about Robert Downey Jr's turn in brown makeup in the upcoming film Tropic Thunder: 1) he looks authentically black, not cartoony and 2) when not in blackface, he's practically in whiteface. See what we mean after the jump.

CONTINUED »

Funny or Die?

rdjblackface

Robert Downey Jr is in blackface for his new role in the Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder. Before you summarily condemn him, note that unlike the Afrocentric Angelina Jolie's turn in A Mighty Heart, Downey Jr isn't portraying a character of color; he's playing a white actor named Kirk Lazarus who's stupidly cast as a black soldier. To us, it's almost as if Thunder is making fun of Jolie. Whaddya think?



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