Not Quite Black Or White: Actors Who’ve Played Race-Bending Roles
Robert Downey Jr. In Tropic Thunder
For his race-bending role in Tropic Thunder, Robert Downey Jr. plays a white actor who is cast to play a black sergeant in a Vietnam War film. Not surprisingly, audience reception was mixed on the comedic use of blackface, but Downey Jr.’s own co-star Brandon T. Jackson (who’s black) praised him for the role, saying “he played a black dude better than anybody I’ve ever seen!”