By today you credibly know that "Tropic Thunder" stars some of Hollywood's biggest stars � from Jack Black to Ben Stiller, from Tom Cruise to Tobey Maguire � all unforced to send up their own images for a laugh. You may as well have heard that none of them is beingness talked around with as much acclaim as Robert Downey Jr., who plays Kirk Lazarus, a multiple-Oscar winner so committed to his craft that he literally transforms into a black valet to portray a Vietnam solder in the film within the film. His performance is different, you hear, satirical and all in good fun. But you're worried, of course, because Downey isn't the first white man to play an African-American in recent film, and those portrayals don't always bend out so well.
But did you know that he's not even the number one person in his own family to take on such a role? In crafting Lazarus, Downey says he owes a lot to his father, wHO directed a blaxploitation film nearly 40 years agone called "Putney Swope," about a mordant ad administrator who ends up running the entire agency. Because Arnold Johnson, the histrion portraying Swope, had worry remembering his lines, Robert Downey Sr. dubbed his own voice over Johnson's during post-production.
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