Ben Stiller defends Tropic Thunder and says he's 'proud' despite blackface row
Ben Stiller has said he's still 'proud' of controversial movie Tropic Thunder amid years of backlash.
The 57-year-old actor - who played the movie’s protagonist Tugg Speedman in the 2007 film - responded to a tweet which claimed that he regretted appearing in the role.
The movie was accused of pushing stereotypes, and even showed Robert Downey Jr. in blackface.
As per the film’s synopsis, the film portrays “a film crew shooting a big-budget war movie, [who] are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying, when they are attacked by a gang of poppy-growing local drug dealers, due to mistaken identities.”
Ben Stiller refuses to apologise for Tropic Thunder amid years of controversy (Merie Weismiller Wallace, SMPSP)
He played the movie’s protagonist Tugg Speedman in the 2007 film (Dreamworks/Splash News)The tweet from @BennySings, who tagged Stiller in the tweet, read: “Please stop apologising 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. Y'all can just get over it. I was DYING laughing when I first saw it back in the day and so was everyone else.”
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Responding to the tweet, Stiller responded: "I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder. Don’t know who told you that. It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened.
He continued: "Proud of it and the work everyone did on it."
The film even showed Robert Downey Jr. in blackface (DreamWorks)The Twitter user then shared a tweet from Stiller from 2018 that read: "Actually Tropic Thunder was boycotted 10 years ago when it came out, and I apologised then.
"It was always meant to make fun of actors trying to do anything to win awards.
“I stand by my apology, the movie, Shaun White, And the great people and work of the @SpecialOlympics,” he concluded in the previous tweet.
The Mirror contacted a representative of Ben Stiller for a comment on the matter.
Ben said in a tweet: "I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder." (Dreamworks)Robert Downey Jr. has also addressed the controversy around his character’s use of blackface, arguing that the film was trying to satirise the industry in Hollywood.
In an interview on the back in 2020, Downey Jr. said about appearing in blackface: "[Ben] 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 percent of my Black friends were like, ‘Dude, that was great'.
"I can’t disagree with [the other 10 percent], but I know where my heart lies."
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