Ben Stiller on Why He Doubts ‘Tropic Thunder’ Could Get Made Today

Ben Stiller has admitted that making his 2008 satirical comedy Tropic Thunder today would be “incredibly dicey.”

The actor-director-producer recently explained to Collider why he’s doubtful that type of movie could work in the current environment where “edgier comedy is just harder to do.”

“Definitely not at the scale we made it at, too, in terms of the economics of the business,” he continued. “I think even at the time we were fortunate to get it made, and I credit that, actually, to Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks. He read it and was like, ‘Alright, let’s make this thing.’ It’s a very inside movie when you think about it.”

Tropic Thunder, starring and directed by Stiller, also starred Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson. The film follows a group of egotistical actors making a big-budget war movie who are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

However, the Zoolander actor pointed to Downey’s now-controversial role as one of the reasons the movie likely wouldn’t get made today. The Oscar winner plays Kirk Lazarus, who undergoes “pigmentation alteration” surgery, as his character puts it, in order to play a Black soldier in a film.

“The idea of Robert playing that character who’s playing an African American character, I mean, incredibly dicey,” Stiller added. “Even at the time, of course, it was dicey too. The only reason we attempted it was I felt like the joke was very clear in terms of who that joke was on — actors trying to do anything to win awards. But now, in this environment, I don’t even know if I would have ventured to do it, to tell you the truth. I’m being honest.”

Despite some criticism over the years, Stiller wrote on social media last year that he makes “no apologies for Tropic Thunder,” adding, “It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it.”

Downey, who earned a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his role in the film, has also previously defended the film. During an appearance on the Literally! With Rob Lowe podcast earlier this year, he connected Tropic Thunder and Norman Lear’s hit sitcom All in the Family, saying in part, “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 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.”