Race Row As Actor Robert Downey Jr ‘Blacks Up’ for New Film
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Actor Robert Downey Jr has in the past been applauded for his edgy roles.
But his latest may be a step too far—as the actor dons make-up to play a rather convincing looking black man in a new Hollywood film starring comic actor Ben Stiller.
With his afro hair and brown skin, he is virtually unrecognisable as the 42-year-old star of stage and screen.
Downey Jr plays a worthy Oscar-winning actor taking on a role originally written for a black actor, and rather than re-write the part, he goes method.
Clearing anticipating a backlash, Downey Jr told a US magazine: “If it’s done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago. If you don’t do it right, we’re going to hell.”
But the backlash has clearly begun as one comment on a showbiz blog Just Jared said: “I’m not black and I find it offensive; are there not any talented enough black actors out in the world that they feel the need to hire a white guy to do a black guy?”
“They are infering that there are no good enough black actors to play a black person.
“What is the significance of hiring a white guy to play a black part? what are they trying to prove? I bet its to get more publicity.”
But in support of Downey’s satirical role another comment on the blog said: “I’m black too, and if they were satirising black people yes it would be offensive. but they’re not.
“It’s FUNNY because they’re NOT legitimising negative racial stereotypes, anyone with a brain in his/her head can see how painfully clear that is.”
The film centres on a group of pompous actors making the most expensive Vietnam war movie ever made.
Fed up with their self-involved cast, the film’s makers drop them into the jungle to take care of themselves, where they get caught up in a conflict they don’t realise is real.
The cast also includes Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte and cameos from Tom Cruise and Tobey Maguire.
Stiller said he was “trying to push it as far as you can within reality,” with the intent of satirising over-the-top actors, not African-Americans.
“I had no idea how people would respond to it,” Stiller told the magazine. But at a recent screening, black viewers liked the film”, he said.
The film, Stiller’s first as director since Zoolander, also sees his character adopt an Asian baby but worries “that all the good ones have gone”.
  Left: Black Robert Downey Jr.. Right: White Robert Downey Jr. |
(Posted on March 7, 2008)
Comments
They have no real wrongs to complain about, so they complain about something that is not wrong and hurts no one. All in the name of Greater White Guilt.
Posted by at 6:08 PM on March 7
Most US blacks are part white and Downey has a round head, so it works. And makeup artists are so good these days, they could make Paris Hilton look Ethiopian, at least.
Posted by Godzilla Pimp at 6:11 PM on March 7
“They are infering that there are no good enough black actors to play a black person.”
First of all, the word is “implying” (the reader/listener infers). Second, this comment totally misses the point. This is the same basic plot as “Tootsie” with Dustin Hoffman, except that race instead of gender is the theme. The guy is playing a white guy who disguises himself as a black guy.
I don’t recall people being up in arms because of any implication that not enough good actresses were available to play the part of “Tootsie” - which would have been an equally ridiculous argument.
Posted by XYZ at 6:36 PM on March 7
The protests that a black actor should have been hired to play a black man are clearly silly, considering the context: Downey is playing a White actor who decides to play a black man. Just judging from the photo, he has morphed completely into it, appearance-wise. Various White actors over the years since Shakespeare wrote “Othello” have done the same playing The Moor.
Did anyone protest when two black actors “whited up” to play in “White Chicks”? I didn’t hear of any. I also seem to remember Godfrey Cambridge playing a black guy who suddenly turns (gasp!) WHITE! Again, a typical double standard: It’s OK for blacks to satirize Whites, but let a White even dare to play a black, never mind how sympathetically, and the cries of “Racism!” resound.
Posted by Wayne Engle at 6:58 PM on March 7
It shouldn’t matter if blacks like this film or not based on Downey portraying a black person.
Posted by at 7:08 PM on March 7
First off, kudos to the makeup artist.
On a more serious note, is this any different than the Wayans brothers putting on “white face” for their movie “White Chicks?” Yes, it is. In this movie, the goal is not to disparage another race, as was the goal of “White Chicks.” I think there are probably black people who would rather see a serious White actor play a black man than another rapper-turned-actor who would bring down a movie that could be of quality. I for one prefer it, anyway. I’m not black, but then again, why should we really worry whether they are happy or offended or anything? That’s what liberals are for.
Posted by Teutonicus at 7:25 PM on March 7
What are they so offended by? That is what acting is about- becoming another character, right? Why aren’t whites up in arms about fims like “White Chicks” and acts like Chris Rock? Both offend me by making fun of whites by blacks. I say good for Downey! I loved him in “Chaplin”. The fact that he can produce such fine work and be on drugs (well, he was back then) is a true testament!
Posted by jenbelievesinwhites at 7:34 PM on March 7
“Downey Jr plays a worthy Oscar-winning actor taking on a role originally written for a black actor, and rather than re-write the part, he goes method.”
The movie is about a White actor playing a black man in a movie, so wouldn’t you need a White actor to play the role? Wouldn’t make sense to have a black actor playing a White actor playing a black actor, now would it? Do blacks now just LOOK for stuff to whine about???!
Posted by Reality at 7:39 PM on March 7
There was a movie a few years ago based on the book called “Black Like Me” I cant remember the name but the main character was played by a White guy. There was also that stupid race switch television show that made the stupid White people feel guilty.
Posted by Spartan24 at 7:57 PM on March 7
“Downey Jr plays a worthy Oscar-winning actor taking on a role originally written for a black actor, and rather than re-write the part, he goes method.”
Here is the key absurdity, the protesters are getting upset over a fictionalized white actor portraying a role originally written for a black. It is not as if this were a real role originally written for a black (as so often happens in the reverse for white characters,) but an actual satirical device for the film. Personally, I find these horrified reactions by these protesters (particularly the white ones,) potentially more amusing than the film will likely be. Somehow, someway, I am sure that by using this satirical device, it is designed to degrade whites, not blacks? Thus, this thing probably isn’t worth seeing at a theater and wasting 8 or 10 dollars, but might be interesting to order through Netflix?
If the point was to make self-absorbed, pseudo intellectual, multicultural Marxists like Comrade Downey and the rest of his ilk appear as they are in reality, they would select to do this only because they could not bring themselves to make an actual black appear in a negative role. Thus, on a subconscious or even conscious level, they select a minstrel show approach to avoid actually inflicting “harm” on blacks by making the fictionalized movie an essay on white racial stereotypes, and not detailing actual black social pathologies.
However, I know that such an intricate and subtle self-evaluation and critique of current fashionable trends in Hollywood, would be expecting just a bit much.
As always, God help us all!
Posted by John PM at 8:06 PM on March 7
I think the goal is to “prove” that “race is a social construct.” However, Robert (,Jr.) had to completely change the design of his face, and he still doesn’t look right, even for a Black mulatto.
Posted by EA (European American) Steve at 8:26 PM on March 7
Did Whites become outraged over the comedy White chicks, where black men dressed up as blonde white women? I didn’t hear any complaints. But it seems Blacks have become much more sensitive over the years, back in the 80’s, a white actor appeared in black face in Soul man, and it generated very little controversy. Anyway, I heard it is much easier to make a white person look black, than the other way around.
Posted by at 8:34 PM on March 7
What? Another movie about Vietnam? Oh, when will it end?! These baby boomers will never let go of the 60s. I blame THEM for all this political correctness.
Posted by passingthru at 8:38 PM on March 7
Let’s face it, blacks are offended by everything. There doesn’t need to be any reason or logic behind it. Just waking up & breathing the air offends them.
The important question is: Why should we care?
Posted by WaitNow at 8:51 PM on March 7
Were these people out Complaining when Ving Rhames played Kojac?
What about when Halle Berry played Catwoman,a white character? How about the all black remake of the Honeymooners that came out a few years ago? Denzel Washington playing Julius Ceaser? Blacks like P Diddy campaigning for a black James Bond?
No?
What a suprise.
Posted by Danny at 9:00 PM on March 7
“It’s FUNNY because they’re NOT legitimising (sic)* negative racial stereotypes, (sic) anyone with a brain in his/her (sic) head can see how painfully clear that is.”
Yes, but shouldn’t legitimizing racial stereotypes be a worthy artistic endeavor? There are countless instances where white actor and actresses portray negative stereotypes of white people. This has occurred since day one in the movies. Now black stereotypes, the harmless lazy not so smart black, went out with Stepin Fetchit and Willie Best.
Birth of a Nation (1913)is the only film that comes to mind that uses white actors to portray blacks artistically in a negative light. Since then we have no films portraying blacks truly and actually in their negative side. This is not good for blacks. The would be rapist murderer white hating black has got a deterrent denied him. This is not good for whites for obvious reasons.
• Legitimizing should have a “z” not an “s”.
• “Stereotypes” is spelled correctly, but it ends an independent clause. The following clause does not begin with a coordinating conjunction, so there should be a semicolon not a comma after stereotype.
• The (sic) notation tells you that the error in English grammar is the mistake of the person quoted, and not the person doing the quoting. But don’t you just hate it when the person puts a (sic) behind a word and you spend all day trying to figure why? Example: U S Department of Justice (sic). The reason for the (sic) is because the Department of Justice has nothing to do with justice, and should be corrected to Department of Federal Law Compliance, or some such designation.
• Remember when candidate Bill Clinton told the gays (sic) that, “with a stroke of a pen”, by Executive Order, he could make it legal for them to bugger one another in the Army, Air Force, and Navy. Well I think that the next president, whoever she may be, should make it illegal for a person to use (sic) without informing the reader exactly what is wrong. A violation would bring down the full force of the Justice Department on the offender.
• “his/her”, idiotic feminist English rules followed by men with no brains or balls, and women who like men that way.
• “gays” incorrectly used for homosexual.
Posted by P Noctura at 9:59 PM on March 7
What are they so offended by?
With Blacks, imitation is the sincerest form of mockery.
Posted by Doppelgangbanger at 10:14 PM on March 7
Danny:
I don’t know how old you are, but Catwoman was a character that was played by former Miss America 1955 Lee Merriweather and a Black actress Eartha Kitt in the 1960s on the televison program BATMAN. The program ran on ABC from 1964-1968.
There have been Black women that have palyed Catwoman before Halle Berry was probably even born or she was a toddler at best.
Posted by Duke at 11:01 PM on March 7
“White Chicks” came out in 1994 from brothers Shawn and Marlon Wayans; their claim to (hilarious) fame was “In Living Color”.
The last sentence from the plot summary of these real-life Black brothers [dressing up as extremely convincing White females] is this:
“But in order to save their job, the Copeland brothers will have to do the unthinkable: disguise themselves as White women.”
I never saw their movie because it looked stupid.
Posted by at 11:04 PM on March 7
Government/liberals/society have made it okay to be too sensitive. Soul Man(1986)-C.Thomas Howell played a black man. Does anyone know if anyone had a problem with this white actor playing a black man in ‘86? Downey’s fake black skin looks more believeable than Howell’s fake black skin.
(Something out of nothing. That’s all some people are good for.)
Posted by at 11:19 PM on March 7
*’They are infering that there are no good enough actors to play a black person.*
If the character is supposed to be a white actor in makeup potraying a black character on a strange island, then obviously, it is part of the storyline. It just looks as though Blacks plots like these as an excuse to either say they are being mocked, or they are being denied parts.
As much as many Blacks seem to love the old movie Imatation of life, many have complained through the years, that a real Black actress was not cast in the role of a Black girl who passed as White. How easy would it have been to find a light skinned, or mulatto actress, who could pass for 100%? Black genes do tend to dominate, and almost always show through in someway.
In any case, this is just another excuse to complain.
Posted by at 11:30 PM on March 7
And I state − the blacks are right, fellows!!!!!!!! Yes, they are right!!!!!!!!
From now on, following the black guidance, we MUST remake Gandhi, who MUST be played by an Indian. Who’s just mentioned Tootsie? No doubt, a woman MUST take the role. And all other movies with Egyptians, Russians, or any other race, nationality or ethnicity MUST be redone with actors of an appropriate origin. The origin MUST be supported, except documents, by a DNA analysis.
And I’m moving even further. We have to do the same in science. Who says, there no black geniuses, say, in Physics? You are dead wrong. Let blacks appoint ones. The white idiots in physics, struggling with Mother Nature! What a shame. All the problems would be solved in no time, just appoint Al Sharpton a genius.
Am I write, fellows?!
Black culture!!! This is what is going to say the world!!!!!!!!!
Posted by alex at 8:09 AM on March 8
Here is the key absurdity, the protesters are getting upset over a fictionalized white actor portraying a role originally written for a black. It is not as if this were a real role originally written for a black (as so often happens in the reverse for white characters,) but an actual satirical device for the film. Personally, I find these horrified reactions by these protesters (particularly the white ones,) potentially more amusing than the film will likely be.
The movie is about a White actor playing a black man in a movie, so wouldn’t you need a White actor to play the role? Wouldn’t make sense to have a black actor playing a White actor playing a black actor, now would it? Do blacks now just LOOK for stuff to whine about???!
The protests that a black actor should have been hired to play a black man are clearly silly, considering the context: Downey is playing a White actor who decides to play a black man.
which would have been an equally ridiculous argument.”
Had to copy and paste all those to make a point. Silly? Ridiculous? Absurd? Do they look for things to whine about? Well, yes to the last, but I’d say the first three fall way short of the reality.
Posted by at 9:15 AM on March 8
It is the Borat factor at work. When Borat acted the fool and got all the gentiles fired up doing stupid things, there were serious questions about his purpose and the cause of the laughter. Were folks (Jew or gentile) laughing at Borat for being such an idiot character? Or were they laughing at the idiot white American working class gentiles for being racist peasant fools? I think the latter. It was a way to bash average white Christians, to reassure urban Jews and wannabe white gentile elites that they are so much smarter and better than ignorant white working class trash .. and to get the children of the white working class to hate their roots and see themselves (or at least their family and friends in flyover country) as evil deep down inside.
I would guess many blacks are asking themselves the same type of questions: “what are the white folks *really* laughing at? Are they laughing at a goofy white character for being so goofy and stupid in his ridiculous imitation of black folks? Or are white folks laughing at the character’s very realistic imitation of black folks and how stupid black folks are? Or are they laughing at both?”
Posted by Big Bill at 10:28 AM on March 8
• Legitimizing should have a “z” not an “s”.
Posted by P Noctura at 9:59 PM on March 7
This is from UK paper, where standard spelling of this word, and many others, is with an “s.” Ditto “satirising” (also in this article).
Your other points are good. I find it reassuring that AR has a pedant even more pedantic than I am.
BTW, excellent makeup job on the “Africanized” Downey! He certainly looks more persuasive than James Whitmore ever did in “Black Like Me” back in the ’60s. Too bad this new movie will likely use Downey’s transformation as a propaganda tool against people who (like us) DON’T find racial differences to be trivial and/or “socially-constructed.” Beauty may be “only skin-deep,” but race is not.
Posted by A Paler Shade of White at 10:52 AM on March 8
“I don’t know how old you are, but Catwoman was a character that was played by former Miss America 1955 Lee Merriweather and a Black actress Eartha Kitt in the 1960s on the televison program BATMAN. The program ran on ABC from 1964-1968.
There have been Black women that have palyed Catwoman before Halle Berry was probably even born or she was a toddler at best.”
Correction—there has been a black woman who played Catwoman before Halle Berry did and that was Eartha Kitt. Lee Meriwether is white and therefore not relevant to this discussion. For that matter, she only played Catwoman in the Batman movie, not on the TV series, and the TV program ran from 1966-1968. Forgive me, but I am a total Batman nerd.
Posted by at 11:30 AM on March 8
Nobody raised a fuss when leftie Dustin Hoffman played a man playing a woman in Tootsie
Posted by Gayle Sollenberger at 12:06 PM on March 8
I see there are some people who have nothing to do all day but find false problems to complain about. They are the head honchos in the racist industry which extorts billions from innocent people.
Posted by at 12:26 PM on March 8
“I don’t know how old you are, but Catwoman was a character that was played by former Miss America 1955 Lee Merriweather and a Black actress Eartha Kitt in the 1960s on the televison program BATMAN. The program ran on ABC from 1964-1968.”
Sorry. I was thinking of the comics where Selina Kyle was always Catwoman.
I totally forgot about that horribly camp 60’s show.
Posted by Danny at 12:50 PM on March 8
There was a movie a few years ago based on the book called “Black Like Me” I cant remember the name but the main character was played by a White guy. There was also that stupid race switch television show that made the stupid White people feel guilty.
Posted by Spartan24 at 7:57 PM on March 7
The actor was James Whitmore.
The movie had leftist leanings and was very sympathic to the civil rights movement. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Posted by at 2:06 PM on March 8
The movie ‘Watermelon man’ had a black actor playing a white guy. I use the word ‘movie’ loosely. It was an exercise in promoting hate against whites, or white-guilt, which pretty much sums up most of them.
Posted by at 6:51 PM on March 8
I believe there have been black Hamlets on stage — something really weird in the state of Denmark, that — and of course a woman has recently played Bob Dylan. That’s why it’s called ‘theatre’. Downey can play a Chinese emperor or Marie of Rumania for all it matters.
Posted by at 7:03 PM on March 8
What I noticed most was that stiller is holding his M-16’s left handed, which is incorrect. The M-16 is designed for right hand fire only. He should get a hot brass casing in their face firing left handed
Posted by Mr Mann at 8:17 PM on March 8
“What I noticed most was that stiller is holding his M-16’s left handed, which is incorrect. The M-16 is designed for right hand fire only. He should get a hot brass casing in their face firing left handed”
The Vietnam War era M16A1 is as you describe; the current M16A2 has a brass deflector behind the ejection port to mitigate this problem for lefties.
Posted by at 9:45 PM on March 8
“What I noticed most was that stiller is holding his M-16’s left handed, which is incorrect. The M-16 is designed for right hand fire only. He should get a hot brass casing in their face firing left handed”
They actually make a brass deflector so it can be fired by left handers, though nobody uses it in combat—the prevailing thought being that in a combat-ty0pe situation the juices are flowing to the point where the soldier would probably never notice the casings hitting him.
Posted by Earl K. at 1:27 AM on March 9
“I believe there have been black Hamlets on stage — something really weird in the state of Denmark, that — and of course a woman has recently played Bob Dylan. That’s why it’s called ‘theatre’.”
——
And there has been many examples in opera of blacks performing the roles of white characters. In fact, except for Aida, there would hardly be any roles that they could fill ortherwise. No one objects to this.
Posted by at 3:46 AM on March 9
“For that matter, [Ertha Kitt] only played Catwoman in the Batman movie, not on the TV series, and the TV program ran from 1966-1968. Forgive me, but I am a total Batman nerd.”
Posted by at 11:30 AM
———————
I still remember seeing her as Catwoman, and I have never seen the movie. So she MUST have been on television.
Posted by at 3:47 AM on March 9
“Blacks seem to love the old movie Imitation of life, many have complained through the years, that a real Black actress was not cast in the role of a Black girl who passed as White. How easy would it have been to find a light skinned, or mulatto actress, who could pass for 100%? “
—————
There were surely poenty of such persons. But if they were successfully “passing” for white, they certainly weren’t going to advertise the fact.
Posted by at 3:48 AM on March 9
It is the Borat factor at work. When Borat acted the fool and got all the gentiles fired up doing stupid things, there were serious questions about his purpose and the cause of the laughter. Were folks (Jew or gentile) laughing at Borat for being such an idiot character? Or were they laughing at the idiot white American working class gentiles for being racist peasant fools? I think the latter. It was a way to bash average white Christians, to reassure urban Jews and wannabe white gentile elites that they are so much smarter and better than ignorant white working class trash .. and to get the children of the white working class to hate their roots and see themselves (or at least their family and friends in flyover country) as evil deep down inside.
Posted by Big Bill at 10:28 AM on March 8
I thought the same thing in regard to Borat. It was a vile, anti-white Gentile, anti-American film. According to the movie the average American is an anti-semitic, racist, homophobic, jingoistic, worthless hick. He (Mr. Cohen) blindsided the white college kids.
Unfortunately most white Americans missed this and exalted the film. Sad.
Posted by S & GS at 12:51 PM on March 9
Without a doubt blacks will always find a way to turn something harmless into racism. Yet they are the biggest racists of all. They don’t even like themselves as evidenced by the astoundingly high black on black FBI crime statistics. Of course in their eyes, these statistics are racially motivated as well. So, instead to addressing their cultural problems they live in denial. It’s easier to blame whitey than accept responsibility for their cultural dysfunctionalism.
Posted by at 1:09 PM on March 9
Sorry Boys, if you are refering to the pictures posted on AMREN he is carrying a shotgun not an M16.
Posted by Jim at 4:57 PM on March 9
My Dear Mister Noctura, aside from the fact that your nom-de-post sounds like an elderly ladies’ skin cream, your commitment to racial realism is, like a few other’s here, obviously eclipsed by your anti-gay agenda. We are here, and we won’t be flicked off this site by your perverse obsession. sincerly, Ken in Seattle
Posted by at 5:19 PM on March 9
I’m sure the old movies where Whites portrayed Blacks in blackface and danced and carried on was demeaning to Blacks. But that quickly died off after the civil rights movements when Whites were made aware that Blacks were human too. But when Blacks portray Whites, it’s done mockingly and malisciously. Must be a “dumb blond” thing.
Posted by at 9:35 PM on March 9
“We are here, and we won’t be flicked off this site by your perverse obsession. Sincerly, Ken in Seattle “
~~~~~
Touché!
Posted by here too at 9:35 PM on March 9
We will be decendants of slaves for the next 1000 years. I love my race card.
Posted by Unguburu at 1:19 AM on March 10
Sorry Boys, if you are refering to the pictures posted on AMREN he is carrying a shotgun not an M16.
Posted by Jim at 4:57 PM on March 9
They’re referring to the picture from the original post where he’s carrying an A2, which I don’t believe was available in Vietnam, my unit was still using A1s in the 90’s. What I find more amusing than Downey playing a black, is that Ben Stiller has a tatoo with a Celtic Cross on top. Downey is carrying a 45 in his right hand, and a sawed-off in his left hand, good luck firing either.
Posted by PincheGabacho at 2:57 AM on March 10
Another movie about Vietnam?
As opposed to what, passingthru, yet another in an endless line of WWII films? Or does the “bestest generation” get a free pass on everything? Peter Jackson is remaking “Dambusters” fer chrissakes—complete with the dog named N-word. How does that get OK’d?
Posted by at 9:48 AM on March 10
With all the other problems in the United States who cares? Its a movie. If your black and offended, don’t see the show. Save your money up and buy a one way ticket out of the country. End of problem.
Posted by Grady11 at 10:24 AM on March 10
Dear Ken and Friends,
You bring up a good point. What’s a more unpleasant prospect for America: blacks using the government to shove their irrational demands on a reluctant America,
or having the world’s largest neurotic group forcing its members’ obsession down the throats of unwilling Americans?
I think that most American Renaissance readers would say that black activists would bring more misery, although they in no way would want to get behind homosexuals.
Posted by P Noctura at 3:54 PM on March 10
Black versus homosexual, an interesting metaphysical question.
The two most destructive movements in America have been brought on by the black and homosexual pressure groups. This brings up the question which is worse. To phrase it another way: which would you rather be a black or homosexual.
The easy answer is a black because there is nothing denied him in America. But white people don’t really want to be black, basically because it’s permanent, and means the end of the white race.
Most men would choose to be a homosexual. The reason if you’re a homosexual you can be cured. It has happened many times, but is not advertised by the homosexual community. So a homosexual can gloriously carry on the white race, something you could not do if you were black.
The winner has to be homosexual. As a back you could only act white, a definite improvement. But as a homosexual you could actually, metaphysically, be white.
Posted by the Moderate White Activist at 4:47 PM on March 10
“I thought the same thing in regard to Borat. It was a vile, anti-white Gentile, anti-American film. According to the movie the average American is an anti-semitic, racist, homophobic, jingoistic, worthless hick.”
Yeah but was he wrong?
“Most men would choose to be a homosexual.”
Uhhhh, no. I think a lot of white guys would want to be black rather than white heterosexual.
Posted by at 12:14 PM on March 11