Blackface

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeRobert Downey Jr has reinforced his support of his divisive Tropic Thunder role, in which he played a character who used blackface.The actor appeared in the 2008 war comedy, directed by Ben Stiller, playing Kirk Lazarus, an Australian method actor who temporarily darkens his skin to portray a Black character.Downey Jr, 54, has repeatedly defended the character’s depiction in the years…

Ben Stiller, the man behind the hit comedy Tropic Thunder, recently defended the film on Twitter after a Trump supporter with a large following expressed disappointment over Stiller's supposed apology for the film's use of blackface. Stiller responded by saying, "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. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it." The film, which was released in 2008, featured Robert Downey Jr. in blackface, a…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeBen Stiller is still “proud” of Tropic Thunder, which he wrote and starred in, despite its controversial legacy.The 2008 satire comedy about a group of hapless actors making a Vietnam War film famously featured Robert Downey Jr in blackface.Downey Jr’s character is an Australian method actor, Kirk Lazarus, who undergoes “pigmentation alteration” to play an African-American soldier in…

The minstrel show has returned, riding on the apocalyptic horses of artificial intelligence, social media, and NFTs. FN Meka, a rapper created by artificial intelligence who gained TikTok fame through viral short music videos, exists. This fact itself is unfortunate. More unfortunate is that the artificial construct was temporarily signed to Capitol Records. The company dropped FN Meka in response to complaints from Industry Blackout, an activist organization of Black professionals in the entertainment industry, who…

Soprano Angel Blue says she won’t perform in an opera in Italy this month because blackface was used in the staging of a different work this summer on the same stage. The U.S. singer posted a note on her angeljoyblue Instagram page saying she will be bowing out of “La Traviata” at Verona’s Arena this month because the theater recently mounted another Giuseppe Verdi opera, “Aida,” that had perangel formers in blackface. She blasted such use of “archaic” theatrical practices as “offensive, humiliating and…