Ben Stiller is crediting Steven Spielberg for bringing his “dicey” 2008 satirical comedy “Tropic Thunder” to the display screen.
Stiller advised Collider whereas selling his newest movie “Nutcrackers” that Spielberg was key to getting “Tropic Thunder” greenlit. The movie went on to land an Oscar nomination for Robert Downey Jr. within the Finest Supporting Actor class; Downey performed a Technique actor who dons Blackface to painting a Vietnam Battle soldier.
“I believe even on the time we had been lucky to get it made, and I credit score that, really, to Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks. He learn it and was like, ‘Alright, let’s make this factor,’” Stiller mentioned. “It’s a really inside film when you consider it.”
Nonetheless, Stiller admitted that he may not have written and directed “Tropic Thunder” in 2024.
“Clearly, on this surroundings, edgier comedy is simply tougher to do,” Stiller mentioned. “Positively not on the scale we made it at, too, by way of the economics of the enterprise.”
He added, “The concept of Robert taking part in that character who’s taking part in an African American character, I imply, extremely dicey. Even on the time, after all, it was dicey too. The one motive we tried it was I felt just like the joke was very clear by way of who that joke was on — actors attempting to do something to win awards. However now, on this surroundings, I don’t even know if I’d have ventured to do it, to let you know the reality. I’m being sincere.”
Stiller beforehand wrote on Twitter in 2023 that he makes “no apologies” for “Tropic Thunder,” including: “It’s all the time been a controversial film since once we opened. Pleased with it and the work everybody did on it.”
Downey mentioned throughout Rob Lowe’s “Actually!” podcast in 2024 that the reception to edgier movies like “Tropic Thunder” has turn out to be extra “muddied” in modern-day.
“There was once an understanding with an viewers, and I’m not saying that the viewers is now not understanding — I’m saying that issues have gotten very muddied,” Downey mentioned. “The spirit that [Ben] Stiller directed and forged and shot ‘Tropic Thunder’ in was, primarily, as a railing towards all of those tropes that aren’t proper and [that] had been perpetuated for too lengthy.”