THE blockbuster season may be drawing to a close in Hollywood, but before the cold winter nights draw in there’s still another huge hit movie to look forward to.
Ben Stiller has written, directed and is starring in Tropic Thunder, which promises to be the biggest comedy of 2008. Essentially designed to lampoon the film industry, it follows an all-star cast, including Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr, as a group of prima donna actors making a Vietnam war film for a barely recognisable Tom Cruise.
When it was released in America, it knocked the almighty The Dark Knight from the top of the box office. It’s Stiller’s best work since Dodgeball and, as with Iron Man earlier this year, another chance to see the irrepressible Downey Jr steal the show.
fresh talked to Downey Jr, Stiller and Black about their roles in the comedy.
Tropic Thunder is released on September 19.

ROBERT DOWNEY JR plays Kirk Lazarus (main picture), a dedicated method actor – the sort who submerses himself completely in the role and wins loads of awards as a result.
In his own words: “Man, I don’t drop character till I’ve done the DVD commentary”.
A native Australian, Lazarus has undergone controversial pigment-augmentation surgery in order to play black American sergeant Lincoln Osiris. Talented but ridiculously arrogant with it, his success and obsession with his work mean the younger characters look up to him, while rival Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) becomes increasingly annoyed. Not that Lazarus pays much attention.

Were you worried about how the character would be received?
Robert Downey: Obviously, playing an actor who plays a black man in a movie, even though you have some aesthetic distance by the way it’s set up, it’s still potentially hazardous. But with Ben Stiller as this kind of disaffected action star and Jack Black as the adult comedy guy, it just seemed like there would be something missing if somebody wasn’t going so method that it was really inappropriate and borderline psychotic.

Did you have a ball doing the improvised scenes?
RD: I was just in the zone. There were some days where I literally felt that I WAS sergeant Lincoln Osiris – which is stupid because that was the whole thing I was making fun of, that Kirk Lazarus thinks he is Osiris. But there were days where at lunchtime I’m externally black and I’m in my trailer, and people would come by and talk to me. It was easier just to stay in the character than to break it.

How did the action scenes compare with those in Iron Man?
RD: Truth be told, the next Iron Man, or this more action-oriented version of Sherlock Holmes I’m going to do (Guy Ritchie’s latest project), will really push me to a new level – whereas Iron Man was basically an origin story where there wasn’t action personally for me. Tropic Thunder was stepping that up a little bit, you know. Basically, in the first two weeks I saw more squibs and explosions go off than I had in my entire career.

Were you a fan of some of the classic Vietnam movies?
RD: Yeah, I don’t know how you couldn’t be. They’re so part of cinematic culture. People want to be those characters, you know?

BEN STILLER directed and co-wrote the film, and also plays Tugg Speedman. Living (unhappily) in Kirk Lazarus’s shadow, Speedman is worried that Tropic Thunder might be his last chance at success. Constantly fretting about his future, he wilfully ignores the dangers of the jungle, believing that – even in the face of total disaster – the director has set it all up as an elaborate ruse. These are changed days for Speedman, though – he is formerly the highest-paid, highest-grossing action star of all time, but who took a disastrous turn in an attempt to be a serious actor in a Forrest Gump-inspired flick called Simple Jack.

Is it true that the original idea for the film came about over 20 years ago?
Ben Stiller: I was doing a small part in Steven Spielberg’s Empire Of The Sun and some friends of mine were in Hamburger Hill. We were sharing stories about actors going off to these fake boot camps and having life-changing experiences. It seemed to me there was some humour in the idea of the actors taking themselves too seriously just because they went off and did a war movie.

Why cast Jack Black?
BS: Jack was always the first choice for Portnoy because he’s one of the funniest guys there is. Playing the archetypal funny, gross-out guy, he’d be able to make fun of stuff that he’s done before and sort of satirise that – and yet have it be him.

And Robert Downey Jr?
BS: I really felt it was important to have somebody who was considered one of the great actors of their generation – which Robert is. And he’s also really funny. Very few guys could have been able to find that balance. He plays an actor who’s making this wrong-headed decision to go too far. He’s trying to find this great challenge: to play an African-American guy, which is just a ridiculous idea for a white actor. We had to be really clear about what we were satirising and where the humour was coming from.

Tell us about the spoof trailers and things you’ve done for the movie.
BS: We did a pseudo documentary, sort of like a Heart-Of-Darkness-meets-Burden-Of-Dreams thing about the making of our movie – not our real movie, but the making of the movie that’s within the movie that we’re making. It was fun to take that footage and use it on the internet to create a website for that fake documentary and websites for each actor. Kirk Lazarus and Tugg Speedman – let’s give them real filmographies, let’s give them their own websites and let’s create that world.

JACK BLACK plays Jeff “Fats” Portnoy. A walking advert against the dangers of living an excessive, Hollywood lifestyle, Portnoy is a drug-addled comedian-turned-actor who is well known for playing multiple parts and his frequent flatulence in films. When the cast become stranded in the jungle and Portnoy loses his drugs (or “magic beans” as he calls them), he becomes increasingly desperate.
Said to be based on a combination of real Hollywood actors, most of the genuine laugh-out-loud moments are reserved for him – look out for a scene where he is tied to a tree to prevent him from bingeing once more.

How did you get involved in the project?
Jack Black: Ben and I have been working together for many years. He got me some great parts in movies before I was famous, so I’m always happy when he sends me another script. And this script blew me away. Honestly, this is one of the funniest scripts I’ve ever read.
Tell us about your character.
JB: My character’s named Jeff Portnoy. He’s a portly gentleman who usually does films that are very lowbrow comedy, having to do with gaseous expulsions from the rectal region. And he’s trying to make a change in his career, maybe get a little more respect by doing this very Oscar-worthy Vietnam war drama. He’s also dealing with some personal demons: he has a bit of a drug addiction that we find out about in the middle of the film.

Did you base him on anyone or anything?
JB: There’s a little bit of a homage maybe to an Eddie Murphy film. And a little Chris Farley, a little Tom Sizemore. A lot of different people, a little me.

Were you happy handling the guns in
the movie?
JB: Yeah. I don’t know why I was so good at it. I’ve never shot a gun before. They just handed me the M60, also known as the pig because it’s so big, and I ran through the fields shooting at different targets. I was shooting blanks, but still it was very
macho-looking.

You worked with Ben on Cable Guy: how do you think he’s changed as a director?
JB: I think he’s more comfortable with the actors. And he lets the camera roll so you get some momentum when you do, like, six or seven takes in a row without cutting. You get some of the funniest stuff on the later takes.

You went blond in this movie. Is it true that blonds have more fun?
JB: I have always had a lot of fun. Did I have more fun? I’m not at liberty to say.