Ben Stiller won’t apologize for Tropic Thunder

Amid cancel culture, it seems Tropic Thunder would be one of the go-to targets–to people that completely miss the point. And it has been and remains so, with the topic coming up as recently as this week, forcing Ben Stiller to respond once again.

One Twitter user claiming that liberals have been allegedly trying to “cancel” Tropic Thunder…15 years after it came out. Ben Stiller replied, “I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder. Don’t know who told you that. It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it.” (It may be worth noting that “Benny S.” is clearly a conservative and may just be trying to get a rise.) You can see the exchange below:

This is not the first time Ben Stiller has tweeted about controversies surrounding Tropic Thunder. After snowboarder Shaun White dressed as Simple Jack–the mentally challenged farm boy of the titular fake movie played by Stiller–for Halloween, Stiller tweeted, “Tropic Thunder was boycotted 10 years ago when it came out, and I apologized then. It was always meant to make fun of actors trying to do anything to win awards. I stand by my apology, the movie, Shaun White, And the great people and work of the @SpecialOlympics.” Stiller is referring to boycotts seemingly encouraged by the National Down Syndrome Coalition.

Tropic Thunder is frequently cited as one of the top movies that would absolutely not get made in this age, primarily due to Robert Downey Jr. donning blackface via his Australian method actor character Kirk Lazarus, who gets a skin pigmentation alteration to darken his skin for his latest role. Downey Jr. has also come to the defense of the Tropic Thunder blackface, saying, “90 per cent of my black friends were like, ‘Dude, that was great.’ I can’t disagree with [the other 10 per cent], but I know where my heart lies. I think that it’s never an excuse to do something that’s out of place and out of its time, but to me it blasted the cap on [the issue]. I think having a moral psychology is job one. Sometimes, you just gotta go, ‘Yeah I effed up.’ In my defense, ‘Tropic Thunder’ is about how wrong [blackface] is, so I take exception.”

Do you think Tropic Thunder will ever escape its controversy? Let us know in the comments section below!