Ben Stiller says he doubts if Tropic Thunder would be made today: ‘Edgier comedy is just harder to do’

Film featured Robert Downey Jr’s character in blackface

Ben Stiller has recently shared that he isn’t sure if his 2008 film Tropic Thunder, that starred Robert Downey Jr, would be made today.

Tropic Thunder, which Stiller wrote, acted in, and directed, is a satirical action comedy that followed a group of actors making a big-budget Vietnam war film, and due to a series of events are forced to use their acting skills to survive actual dangerous situations that they find themselves in.

The satirical action comedy film starred Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Cruise, Nick Nolte, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Brandon T Jackson, Bill Hader, Steve Coogan, and featured a number of actors and celebrities who play themselves, and ridiculed prestigious war films, method acting, and the Hollywood studio system.

In an interview, Stiller explained that he doubted the current environment was suitable for “edgier comedy” like Tropic Thunder.

“I doubt it. Obviously, in this environment, 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,” Stiller told Collider, responding to a question about whether Tropic Thunder could get made in 2024.

“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.

Ben Stiller said that ‘in this environment, edgier comedy is just harder to do’ (DreamWorks)

The Royal Tenenbaums star pointed to Downey Jr’s character Kirk Lazarus, an Australian method actor and five-time Academy Award winner, who got himself a controversial “pigmentation alteration” surgery so he could play a black soldier in the film.

“But yeah, the idea of Robert playing that character who’s playing an African American character, I mean, incredibly dicey. 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.”

Last year, Stiller responded to a fan on X who asked the actor to “stop apologising for doing this movie”.

“I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder,” the actor wrote. “Don’t know who told you that. It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work that everyone did on it.”

Downey Jr’s portrayal of the character has received some criticism over the years, but the actor, who won a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for the role, has defended the use of blackface in the film before.

During an appearance on Rob Lowe’s Literally! podcast earlier this year, Downey Jr used Tropic Thunder and Norman Lear’s sitcom All in the Family to show examples of film and television that employed problematic tropes specifically to point out the fact that they were “not right”.

Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder (Paramount)

“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,” Downey said. “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.

Stiller also provided a update on the highly-anticipated second season of Apple TV ‘s Severance, which stars Adam Scott, Tramell Tillman, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry and John Turturro as employees of a shady biotech company called Lumon that “severs” its employees’ memories using a medical procedure, dividing their work and home lives completely in a daring experiment to find a work-life balance.

“We now have sort of opened up the world for the innies who have been on the outside world, so we felt like there was a responsibility to open up the story in that way and ratchet up the stakes and really dig into these relationships in terms of what Mark is dealing with in this very unique situation of the innie and the outie,” he said.

Adam Scott in Severance (Apple TV+)

“The first season was so much about Mark trying to navigate this world, and then now realizing, having had his innie be on the outside world and learn this incredibly impactful thing about his wife, to follow up on that and that journey, to me it's always been about Mark's journey towards figuring out who he is.”

Season one of Severance is streaming on Apple TV+ and season two will premiere on 17 January 2025.