Robert Downey Jr. says Tropic Thunder is like All in the Family, railed against 'tropes that are not right'

Tropic Thunder and All in the Family have more in common that the casual viewer might think — at least according to Robert Downey Jr. 

The Marvel star has addressed the continued criticism surrounding his controversial 2008 action-comedy, in which he infamously starred as a Method actor who dons blackface in order to play a Black sergeant, saying the film's intent was to shine a spotlight on "tropes that are not right and had been perpetuated for too long," not unlike Norman Lear's pioneering 1970s sitcom. 

“I was looking back at All in the Family, and they had a little disclaimer that they were running at the beginning of the show,” Downey said on Thursday’s episode of Rob Lowe’s Literally podcast. “People should look it up, exactly what it is, because it is an antidote to this clickbait addiction to grievance that [people seem] to have with everything these days."

Downey then paraphrased the show’s disclaimer, but encouraged listeners to find it themselves. (The full warning reads: “The program you are about to see is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show — in a mature fashion — just how absurd they are.”)

Lowe, who called Tropic Thunder his “favorite movie ever,” then suggested that Downey liked the “language” of the series’ disclaimer, with which he agreed. 

“The language was saying, ‘Hey, this is the reason that we’re doing these things that, in a vacuum, you could pick apart and say are wrong and bad,’” Downey replied. “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.” 

He continued, “The spirit that [Ben] 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.”

This isn’t the first time Downey has defended the film in recent years. While visiting Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2020, he said he had good intentions when it came to playing his divisive character and that Stiller knew "exactly' what his vision for it was. "He executed it," he said. "It was impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie. Tropic Thunder was about how wrong that is."

Last year, Stiller stated that he makes “no apologies” for the film, writing in his response to a fan tweet, “It's always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it."

Listen to Downey discuss Tropic Thunder in the podcast above.

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