Race row as actor Robert Downey Jr ‘blacks up’ for new film
Actor Robert Downey Jr has in the past been applauded for his edgy roles.
But his latest may be a http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2244 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.
In a still from film Tropic Thunder, Downey Jnr is sandwiched between Ben Stiller, and a blonde Jack Black.
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 http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3688; 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?”