Oh, and that ’so called’ racism comment clearly shows that you ain’t black - or if you are, you CLEARLY didn’t get that all-important email.

…that being said, as serious as he seems to be taking the role, and as dedicated as his character seems to be, it will be interesting to see what direction it takes. Does he become completely brainwashed by the end of the film and lose his ‘whiteness’, or is he finally slapped down by another black cast member who has finally had enough after he starts grasping at stereotype straws and spouting ‘yessuh’ and other ‘offensive’ ethnically accented words???

Ignorant people are going to be soooo pissed by this movie without even knowing what it’s about.

Even though anyone of any other race or nationality can play any other race or nationality without public scrutiny and backlash.

Ever since the incredibly offensive days of Blackface…. hell, back then even black performers were often told to ‘darken up’.. those were crazy days… but seeing as Downey’s role isn’t written to be offensive or racist… even though his CHARACTERS role may be stereotypical and racist (perhaps why the didn’t have a black actor??)..

well.. anyway.. even if people start to bitch about it, it’s a far far far cry from the days of ‘Mammy’ and ‘Sambo’ and all the makeup and characterization involved then..

Downey is no Al Jolson.. but then again, Al used Blackface as a way of familiarizing whites with black music and culture,even though it is offensive, it got people to accept and feel comfortable with black performers… to give them more value and credit…. And Jolson also fought long and hard for racial equality on Broadway and beyond.

So I guess when it comes to Jolson it’s a rather complicated story.
what was i talking about??

When comedian Eddie Murphy starred famously in a Saturday Night Live sketch in which–yup!–he pretended to be a white guy, it was recognized for what it was (i.e., parody, social commentary, pretty damn funny). Comedian Dave Chappelle has “played white”. Academy Award winner Joel Grey played a stereotype of an Oriental mystic in “Remo Williams”.

And that’s what’s going on here. Robert Downey. Jr. is an Academy Award-nominated actor. And I think his perspective is dead-on: If he turns the performance into nothing more than offensive caricature, he will have failed. Otherwise, he should be respected, I think, for being the brilliant, daring actor he is.

He’s an ACTOR. So if African-American actors can play Danish princes in “Hamlet”–and they can–I don’t see why Robert Downey, Jr. doesn’t at least deserve our open minds with respect to his performance.

Heere’s a novel idea: Let’s SEE THE MOVIE before passing judgment, people!

Read that book and the debate over whether Downey’s performance is by-definition blackface ends as abruptly as a bicyclist slamming into a brick wall.

I don’t think calling this “blackface” is accurate, though. RDJ is probably one of the most socially conscious actors in America, and I don’t think he’d take this role if he didn’t think he could do something special with it. The makeup does not appear to be anything incendiary, nor do I expect any “yessuh”s from Jr. in this film. At worst, this could be a career-ending move for several involved parties, starting with RDJ and Stiller and ending with distribution execs who bought it. At best, we can look at RDJ’s role as an interesting commentary on the arbitrary role pigment plays in our society. I’ll probably see this movie on DVD and be able to judge it better at that time. For now, I’m going to guess it will fall somewhere short of offensive, and somewhere short of brilliant.

And, for the record, calling “Zoolander” a “flop” ignores the cult success it has enjoyed and will continue to enjoy amongst stoner culture for some decades to come. It’s in my collection alongside such other predictable-yet-enjoyable classics as “Dazed and Confused,” “Half Baked,” and “Southpark: Bigger, Longer and Uncut”.

Oh, yeah, I LOVE JACK BLACK!! :p