Inside 'Tropic Thunder'
The Military Hollywood Insider - Mary McIntyre Brown
Aug 18, 2008
Ben Stiller and Jack Black certainly dish it out when it comes to making fun of “serious” actors in “Tropic Thunder.” But, this movie about a group of actors who are filming a big budget war movie until a series of mishaps leads them into a real battle is also packed with send-ups and shouts out to many war movies of the past.
I have to admit that I saw “Tropic Thunder” and did my interviews before the recent controversy which resulted in a protest by several disability rights groups.
The controversy stems from Ben Stiller’s character Tugg Speedman, an overly pampered Hollywood action star who had played a mentally impaired farm hand in the hopes of winning an Oscar in a movie called “Simple Jack.” The use of the word “retard” in the dialogue of “Tropic Thunder” in reference to “Simple Jack” has caused the uproar.
What surprised me was how very little controversy there seems to be about Robert Downey Jr.’s character, Kirk Lazarus a self-absorbed actor who goes thru “pigmentation surgery” in order to play an African American character… Downey is essentially in “blackface” throughout the movie.
And so far, no word from Eddie Murphy on Jack Black’s not so subtle send up of his movies.
BEN STILLER’S REALLY HARDCORE BOOT CAMP DINNER
Ben Stiller directed, produced, co-wrote and stars in “Tropic Thunder” as Tugg Speedman…
MMB: So you approached Capt Dale Dye ret. USMC to have him train the actors for the battle scenes. Did he do a boot camp?
BS: Well, it was fun because I’ve known Dale for years. And when I started writing the script, I got in touch with him to just get some of his experiences because the movie is about a bunch of actors going off to make a war movie. To me, the inherent humor in that is just that actors take themselves so seriously. And really, at the end of the day, as intense an experience as an actor can have in a two-week boot camp, it’s never going to really, in any way, approximate a real war situation. But actors tend to take themselves so seriously that they’ll say, “Oh, I went on this two-week boot camp. And it just changed my life, so -- We got in the shit, you know?” And so I talked to Dale to get his experiences of how he scared actors out in the bush and things like that. And then we talked about doing a boot camp. I mean, the thing about this movie is it’s about actors playing soldiers. And in the movie, most of the actors haven’t done the boot camp. But I wanted to do a real boot camp. But then it ended up that Downey -- Robert Downey was still doing “Iron Man.” So he only showed up like two days before. And then Jack Black told me he couldn’t come to the boot camp because he was shooting “Kung Fu Panda”-- Then I later found out that was an animated movie. So we ended up instead having a cast dinner instead of a boot camp, which worked out really well. And I think we were as prepared as we should have been because I was afraid we were going to look too good shooting the guns. And luckily, we don’t, so yeah, that’s not a problem.
MMB: You not only star in this movie but also directed, produced and co-wrote it – sounds like a lot of work, but it looks like you had a lot of fun doing it…
BS: It’s something I’ve been working on for a while. And it was great to collaborate with all these actors that I love. I love working with actors. I love working with my writing partners. And the idea is one that’s been brewing for a long time, so it was really fun. For me, directing is what I enjoy the most, so it was great to be able to do it on this scale and work with people who are this good. So I had a great time. And I was really happy to have the experience.
MMB: Do you have a favorite war movie?
BS: One of the reasons I wanted to make the movie is because I love war films. And the great ones, you know, “Apocalypse Now”, “Deer Hunter”, “Platoon”, in terms of the Vietnam era, you know, even “Born on the Fourth of July”, “Full Metal Jacket”… They’re just great films that you can delve into. So we wanted to have a lot of nods to them in the comedy of the movie. But at the end of the day, we also wanted it to just work on a level where you could just buy into the story. But it’s a movie that is so much based on other films that have been made before. Finding that tone was really what was fun about it.
MMB: Explain the Robert Downey character concept.
BS: The whole idea of the movie is really to make fun of actors and how far actors go and self-important actors, actors who want recognition, actors -- you know, just like sort of making fun of the need that actors have to be taken seriously. And Downey’s character -- he’s like the most respected actor of his generation, five Oscars. He’s looking for new challenges. We thought, just comedy-wise, what would be like the most wrongheaded thing an actor could do, thinking he could go too far or how far he could go, thinking he could actually pull something off? A white actor playing a black character in a movie is just ridiculous and wrong. And yet who would think he could do this? Well, some really self-important guy. So that was the idea for this character. And, you know, all leading up to the fact that this guy is so lost within himself. He doesn’t know who he is. And he’s just lost. And he’s played a woman. He’s played a gay priest. He’s played everything in the world, so now he’s taken on this guy. And he shouldn’t be playing this guy. And it was very important for us, in the movie, to have a black actor, who was there all the time, just calling him on it, saying, “This is ridiculous,” sort of saying what hopefully the audience is thinking. And I thought there were very few guys who could actually pull that character off because it is a dicey one, I think. And it could be interpreted the wrong way. So it was a real short list. I knew it had to be a really great actor. It had to be somebody who was one of the most respected actors around. And Downey is that, but he also has a great sense of humor and a fearlessness and a willingness to really go for it a hundred percent, because when we were doing it, we didn’t know if it would work or not. I don’t think anybody had the arrogance to think, “Oh, yeah. We know this is going to work.” It was definitely like, “Okay, we’ll see. We’re just going to try to keep to our intention of what the humor is coming through, which is making fun of actors, who take themselves too seriously. And then he had to put his head down, do the character, commit to it.
MMB: Did you worry that any of the real Hollywood actors that you may be teasing in “Tropic Thunder” would get upset?
BS: No, I think actors have a really good sense of humor about themselves. I was more just concerned that it wasn’t interpreted the wrong way by the African American community.
MMB: So far, no one has complained?
BS: Not that I’m aware of. I feel like I got a real sense of it when I first screened the movie. And I was really looking for feedback. So I put it in front of friends. I asked African American friends how they felt, and a lot of friends, and I just went, “What is your vibe on it?” And people said they got it. They said they got where he was coming from. And obviously in a movie like this, there’s a lot of pushing the envelope. I’m playing an actor who’s playing a mentally impaired guy to try and win an Oscar. Tom Cruise is playing this foul-mouthed, Jewish studio executive. It’s not underlined, but all this stuff is out there that people could really interpret the wrong way. And I felt like that’s what this movie is. And as long as we’re clear about our point of view on it, that’s all we can do, is be clear about what we think is funny about this. And as long as we have our intention in the right place, that’s all we could do. And then let the movie hopefully speak for itself in the context of the movie.
MMB: What about getting Tom Cruise?
BS: I had sent Tom the script because I just wanted to sort of get his feedback on it because he’s a guy who just loves movies. And he’s really smart about movies and story. And throughout the process, he gave me a lot of feedback too because he’s just made a lot of movies. So I didn’t even have the part of the studio exec. And it was his idea. He said, “You make fun of the actors in this movie. It would be funny to have a studio guy.” And that gave me the idea to like, “Oh, that would be really good to fill this story hole,” which is like what’s going on with these guys and why is nobody coming save them? So he saw that part. And I still didn’t think he was going to play the part. I said to him, “Do you want to play the agent?” And he was like, “No, I think the studio guy. That would be fun to play.” And he said, “I want to have really big hands.” I go, “Really big hands?” “Yeah, big, hairy hands.” And I was like, “Okay, that’s a little weird. But you want to have big, hairy hands.” Then he got these hands made. And I was like, “Oh, wow. This is funny and weird.” And then I thought, “Maybe you could be bald too,” to kind of take away his strong hairline and see what that looks like. And then we did a bunch of makeup tests. And it sort of evolved. And then he started dancing in the makeup test one day. And we were filming it. And that’s how the dancing came. So it really happened sort of organically.
JACK BLACK’S MACHINE GUN RUSH
Jack Black plays Jeff Portnoy, an actor known for playing multiple characters in flatulent comedies who happens to have a raging substance abuse problem…
MMB: How did you like firing the M60 machinegun in the movie?
JB: It’s heavy. I think it’s got less of a kick when you’re using blanks. I think. I mean, it stands to reason, you know? The blanks are just shooting air. But yeah, you feel pretty powerful when you’re running around with that thing. No one’s going to mess with you. An M60. It’s almost like a little, mini cannon.
MMB: Did you get a rush doing battle scenes?
JB: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s great because, when you’re doing movies, a lot of times you have to control the adrenaline because you have be acting real like calm and sensitive. But when you’re doing a war movie and you get the adrenaline, you don’t have to control anything. You just gotta go balls to the walls, go screaming banshee style.
MMB: Do you have a favorite war movie? This gives a nod out to so many great ones.
JB: Well, of course, I love “Apocalypse Now,” one of the great war films. And, you know, there are actually some really great comedic moments in “Apocalypse Now” that were inspirational for this movie like Robert Duvall, you know? “Love the smell of napalm in the morning.” It’s pretty, pretty hilarious in the middle of that really dramatic, kind of heavy movie. But I guess my favorite war film of all time, yeah, probably “Platoon.” It was pretty badass.
MMB: Are you worried that someone might recognize a portrayal of themselves in this movie?
JB: Oh, you mean like Eddie Murphy? Will he be offended? No, I don’t think so. I love Eddie Murphy. He’s a brilliant performer. And we were making fun of all movies. So yeah, and he’s not the only one who does multiple characters. A lot of great actors do multiple character comedies. But I think, if anything, he might be a little flattered that we were -- Listen, I thought that trailer looked pretty funny. I might have to do “Fatty’s Fart 2”.
MMB: Did you get injured making this movie?
JB: I did get dinged up a little bit. On the very first day of shooting, we were doing that big war scene from the movie -- the real movie “Tropic Thunder”. And I was running -- I was carrying the biggest gun. And I had to be running and shooting and diving with the gun. And I landed funny on the gun. And I heard something go [MAKES POPPING NOISE]. And I bruised my rib. And you know how that goes. If you get a rib bruised, it lasts for like six weeks of not being able to breathe all the way in. It’s such a drag. And yeah, what else happened? Stuff. I got scrapes. Nothing bad.
MMB: What’s going on with your band “Tenacious D”?
JB: We’re going to do a couple shows in England at the Reading Festival and Leeds Festival, opening for Metallica. You might have heard of them. And then we’re going to come back and do an Obama benefit on the 23rd of September. And that’s all the concerts we have planned right now.
MMB: Are you concerned about stepping into the political arena in that way?
JB: No, I’ve been doing it for years. We did it for John Kerry. And that didn’t work. And we’ve supported lots of different causes. Tried to legalize weed. That didn’t work. You just keep on chugging away; trying to do what you think is good.
MMB: So you’ve effectively killed all the campaigns --.
JB: [LAUGHS] Yeah. I know. So maybe Obama is going to say, “Do me a favor. Don’t do a benefit for me.”
PRIOR SERVICE…
ROBERT S. WOODS IS AN ACTING VETERAN
It’s easy to understand his legion of female fans when you meet the legendary Robert S. Woods of “One Life To Live” fame. But, did you know that he’s a veteran? And with the kind of irony that only a soap opera can provide, he has an unusual real life plot twist happening with his character on the show, Bo Buchanan, because Woods’ real life son, Tanner, is playing a younger version of Bo on the show…
Listen to Robert S. Woods:
Mary McIntyre Brown has interviewed practically every star in Hollywood. But, before Brown started chatting up the stars, she served in the US Army for 8 years as an Intelligence Analyst and Reporter.
Throughout it all Brown has always been a writer whether writing poems and short stories while on CQ duty when she was a soldier; or writing about the local art scene in the Panhandle of Texas; or music, television and movies in Hollywood. She takes the "Be All You Can Be" motto to heart and has worked as a consultant on news pieces and documentaries with major media organizations MTV, NPR, New York Times, ABC's 20-20. Her work can also be found in the National Gallery for Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.
