Robert Downey Jr. plays Australian actor Kirk Lazarus in his Oscar-nominated role in Tropic Thunder. Downey Jr.’s Lazarus takes the extreme step in Method acting and undergoes pigmentation alteration surgery to play an African-American man. The role was clearly a satire that mocked the extreme lengths some actors were willing to go to for a role. Downey Jr.’s co-star in the film, Danny McBride, revealed how the actor stayed in character the whole time.
Downey Jr.’s portrayal in the film received criticism for donning Blackface, but his acting in the film was praised by many. He was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year, which he lost to Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight.
Robert Downey Jr. Went Full Method To Play The Exaggerated Version Of A Method Actor
Robert Downey Jr. was roped in to play an Academy Award-winning actor who pushes the boundaries of Method acting for a role in Ben Stiller‘s Tropic Thunder. Downey Jr. got a little too meta in playing the role and his co-star Danny McBride witnessed the Dolittle actor’s Method acting. McBride recalled to GQ in an interview that the actor rarely broke character on set and even maintained it while taking bathroom breaks in between takes.
McBride revealed how he accidentally overheard Downey Jr. during one of his breaks. The Sausage Party voice actor played explosives expert Cody Underwood and was placed in a watchtower well above the production. He was given an earpiece that was connected to the microphones of several of his co-stars and crew.
The Pineapple Express actor shared that Downey Jr. left his mic on after one of his takes. McBride watched the Sherlock Holmes actor walk back to his trailer, talking to himself in character about going to pee. Downey Jr. also made up a song about the same. McBride shared with GQ:
“I guess during one of the takes, they had left Downey’s mic on, and so I’m sitting up there, and I’m like, ‘Oh shit, I can hear what he’s saying.’ He was talking to people, and he was in character the whole time. And then I even watched him walk back to his trailer and saw it from down there, and he was talking to himself [and saying], ‘I’m gonna go drain the snake.’ He made up a song about how he was gonna go piss in character for no one else’s benefit except for his own.”
The screenwriter of the film Etan Cohen earlier shared that Kirk Lazarus was created to parody the great lengths that some method actors go to depict a role (via EW). Downey Jr. shared that he had no idea how to build the character but eventually modeled it after the actors Russell Crowe, Colin Farrell, and Daniel Day-Lewis (ComingSoon.net).
Robert Downey Jr. Defends Tropic Thunder Even Today
Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder came under fire for several portrayals that were deemed offensive. Besides Robert Downey Jr.’s Blackface controversy, the film was also accused of insensitive portrayal of disabled individuals. Moreover, Tom Cruise played the character of a studio executive Les Grossman, and wore a fat suit and prosthetic limbs for his character. It also turned problematic for allegedly appropriating a Jewface.
Downey Jr. defended the film in his podcast interview with Rob Lowe earlier this year. Speaking on Literally! podcast, the Oppenheimer actor shared that Stiller’s intention was to mock all of these tropes in movies rather than perpetuate them. He shared on Literally!:
“There used to be an understanding with an audience, and I’m not saying that the audience is no longer understanding — I’m saying that things have gotten very muddied. The spirit that [Ben] Stiller directed and cast and shot Tropic Thunder in was, essentially, as a railing against all of these tropes that are not right and [that] had been perpetuated for too long.”
Tropic Thunder is now available for streaming on Hulu.