This is How Robert Downey Jr's Mother Reacted to His Appearance in Tropic Thunder

Robert Downey Jr. is popularly known for his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark. But the actor is better known among fans for many of his other performances majorly Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder.

Downey's performance in Tropic Thunder is remembered not only for being entertaining but also for the controversy surrounding it. In the film, he played an actor who undergoes pigment surgery to appear African-American for a role.

In a recent discussion with Joe Rogen in a podcast, the actor revealed that this led his mom to worry a lot about the film's performance.

"My mother was horrified, [Mimicking his mother's voice] 'Bobby I'm telling you, I have a bad feeling about this.' I was like 'Yeah me too mom, but uh anyway-- how are we?'".

True to his word, Downey did worry a lot about appearing with blackface make-up on set prior to the film's shooting. "All the night before... I was like 'Well, here we go.' And I think I had six lines that day, but I knew that there was going to be choppers; there was going to be squib fire; there was going to be choreography... it was going to be cacophonous. So I ran those six or eight lines I had a thousand times lying in bed... And so the next day I was free to enjoy myself and not be struggling to wonder what it was I was supposed to be doing."

While Downey's character was initially planned to be Irish, the actor preferred and played an Australian method actor. He later revealed that he modelled his character after Russell Crowe, Colin Farrell and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Shortly after the release of the film, Downey admitted that when director and lead actor Ben Stiller approached him for it, his first reaction was "This is the stupidest idea I've ever heard!".

This was met by Stiller's response, "Yeah, I know. Isn't it great?".

Despite controversies, Tropic Thunder went on to be a successful film appreciated by critics and audiences. It earned more than 180 million dollars against a budget of 90 million dollars at the box office.

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