Danny McBride believes that “Tropic Thunder” could possibly be made today, but it would require an intelligent mind behind the project, much like Ben Stiller provided for the 2008 film.
The “Righteous Gemstones” actor was asked whether the controversial satire could be made in 2026 during Sunday’s episode of “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso.” He argued that the film was difficult to make even in the early 2000s.
“It’s not like they were opening up the gates for a movie like ‘Tropic Thunder’ to be made back then,” he told the host. “At the end of the day, you have to have somebody who’s really intelligent like Ben Stiller who has like a really smart idea.”
Upon his first reading of the script, McBride knew it was provocative, specifically because of Robert Downey Jr.’s character, who is so committed to his method acting that he undergoes “pigmentation alteration” surgery to play a Black man in the film.
“I remember the reading about what Robert Downey Jr.’s character was and being like this is insane. Are they going to really do this?” McBride said, adding that without a strong vision behind the project it would have felt superfluous.
“Tropic Thunder,” starring and directed by Stiller, followed a group of pampered actors who had to become actual soldiers when the war movie they were filming in Southeast Asia turned into the real thing.
The film poked fun at actors posturing for awards contention, but it was most notably controversial for Downey Jr.’s character — a method actor named Kirk Lazarus, an Australian who temporarily darkens his skin to portray a Black character, Staff Sergeant Lincoln Osiris. The use of blackface sparked controversy even before the film’s release.
McBride added that not just anyone could have been given $100 million to make an R-rated comedy at this scale.
“Do I think that could anyone just make that? Hell no,” he said.
“You’re saying it helps to be a straight white guy doing it,” Sam Fragoso pressed.
“I think it helps to be intelligent to do it,” McBride answered. “They gave Ben like over $100 million to make this crazy R-rated movie. It was awesome. And I think it’s why people still love it is that Ben was so sure of what he was doing, and it was funny.”
Stiller himself has said that he was doubtful that “Tropic Thunder” could be made in 2026 because “edgier comedy is just harder to do.”
“The idea of Robert playing that character who’s playing an African American character, I mean, incredibly dicey,” he said in a 2024 interview with Collider. “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.”
The actor-director has previously stated though that he makes “no apologies” for the film and that he is proud of it and everyone’s work in contribution to it.
