This is unexpected

[trinityvixen]

And yet, not?

Guess who's boycotting Tropic Thunder?

I guess it's all a matter of which actor you trust to satirize which material. Robert Downey Jr. can, apparently, do a literal blackface to poke fun at people who...do blackface. But ask Ben Stiller to skewer actors who play characters with disabilities by pretending to be an actor who does, and there'll be trouble. It's a question of talent, certainly--RDJ is the better actor by orders of magnitude between the two of them--but I wonder if the writing of the one set up isn't more sensitive than the other? Both are meant only to harsh on the people who would exploit minorities or the disabled for fame and glory. You'd think they'd be able to do as well for one group as another.

Comments

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

I remember the boycotting of The Last Temptation of Christ - I was rehearsing for a production of "A Christmas Carol" at the building next to where the movie was showing, and we used to get mobbed by angry protesters every time we walked outside (they were there all day).

The thing is, when people make this much noise about something like this, they actually don't prevent people from seeing it, because many people will go see just to know what the hype is about or to deliberately annoy the protesters. I am curious to know what these groups think of films where a disabled person is portrayed by a "normal" actor - one would think that would be more frustrating, but perhaps I am wrong.

I have certainly offended people by accident by suggesting that a show had been "dumbed down" so i might not be the best person to ask.