Ben Stiller ‘makes no apologies’ for ‘Tropic Thunder’
Ben Stiller isn’t sorry about “Tropic Thunder.”
The 2008 film has drawn criticism for its portrayal of disability, as well as for the fact that Robert Downey Jr. wore blackface in it.
Stiller, 57, responded to a tweet that asked him to “please stop apologizing for doing this movie.”
“It was and still is funny AF … Even funnier now with cancel culture the way it is. It’s a MOVIE. Ya’ll [sic] can just get over it. I was DYING laughing when I first saw it back in the day and so was everyone else,” the user wrote.
The actor responded that he’s “proud” of the action-comedy.
“I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder. Don’t know who told you that. It’s always been a controversial movie since … we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it,” Stiller, who both starred in and directed the film, tweeted.
The movie follows a group of actors who get lost in the jungle while shooting a war film and are left to fend for themselves as they face real danger with nothing but their acting skills.
The same Twitter user brought attention to a 2018 tweet from Stiller. The actor was responding to a tweet joking about boycotting “Tropic Thunder” after Shaun White, an Olympic gold medalist snowboarder, dressed as Simple Jack, a disabled character in the film, for Halloween.
“Actually Tropic Thunder was boycotted 10 years ago when it came out, and I apologized then. It was always meant to make fun of actors trying to do anything to win awards,” the tweet said. “I stand by my apology, the movie, Shaun White, And the great people and work of the @SpecialOlympics.”
The film’s release sparked 20 disability advocacy groups — including the Special Olympics — to speak out against the use of the word “retard.”
Downey plays Kirk Lazarus, a Method actor who surgically darkens his skin to play a black soldier.
The 57-year-old actor defended the use of blackface in 2020, saying he believed it had a purpose in this case.
“I think that it’s never an excuse to do something that’s out of place and out of its time, but to me it blasted the cap on [the issue],” Downey said on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in January of that year. “I think having a moral psychology is Job 1. Sometimes, you just gotta go, ‘Yeah, I effed up.’ In my defense, ‘Tropic Thunder’ is about how wrong [blackface] is, so I take exception.”
Despite the self-aware script and Downey’s decision to seek approval from the NAACP before the film’s release, he was hesitant to take the role — which scored him an Oscar nomination in 2009.
“When Ben called and said, ‘Hey, I’m doing this thing’ – you know I think Sean Penn had passed on it or something. Possibly wisely. And I thought, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that and I’ll do that after “Iron Man.”’ Then I started thinking, ‘This is a terrible idea, wait a minute,’” he revealed at the time.
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