Mar 27, 2008 8:16 am US/Pacific
"Tropic Thunder" Movie Trailer
Movie Features Robert Downey Jr. As A Black Man
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
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Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Steve Coogan in DreamWorks Pictures' Tropic Thunder.
DreamWorks SKG
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Actor Robert Downey Jr. (File)
Mark Davis/Getty Images
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In the movie "Tropic Thunder," Robert Downey Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, an over-the-top Australian-born method actor who has gone to extremes to get into character.
Merie Weismiller Wallace
A group of self-absorbed actors set out to make the most expensive war film. But after ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they encounter real bad guys.
In "Tropic Thunder," one of three summer films featuring Robert Downey Jr., the actor appears on screen as a black man.
Downey Jr. plays overly committed actor Kirk Lazarus, a white man cast to play a black soldier in a satire of the performing profession. The film also stars Jack Black and Ben Stiller, who co-wrote, directed and produced it.
"If it's done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago," Downey told Entertainment Weekly magazine. "If you don't do it right, we're going to hell."
Downey explained that he kept the character from becoming a caricature because he "dove in with both feet."
"If I didn't feel it was morally sound," he said, "or that it would be easily misinterpreted that I'm just C. Thomas Howell in ("Soul Man"), I would've stayed home."
"Tropic Thunder" opens Friday August 15th.
The film is not yet rated.
Trailer video distributed by Dreamworks SKG.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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