Being a celebrity can come with a lot of eyes watching every single mistake that one makes. Oftentimes, this leads to Hollywood’s finest finding themselves involved in some controversy or another. Footloose actress, Julianne Hough was one such actress who was criticized for wearing blackface in the past.
Unfortunately, many well-known actors and actresses have found themselves in similar situations to Hough, including the legendary Robert Downey Jr. However, while the actress was extremely regretful about her actions, the same was not the case for the Marvel star.
Julianne Hough’s Blackface Scandal
Around the release of her CBS series, The Activist, Julianne Hough found herself in some deep waters. Although she was about to star in a show that centered on the betterment of society and the world, fans found older pictures of her that raised more than a few eyebrows. In 2013, the actress dressed as Uzo Aduba’s character from Orange is the New Black for Halloween.
Since she is Caucasian herself, she ended up painting her skin a different color, taking part in blackface. Naturally, with the release of her activism series, this part of her past resurfaced, and many were quite upset with her hypocrisy. Due to this, the actress felt the need to publicly apologize on her Instagram account.
Wearing blackface was a poor choice based on my own white privilege and my own white body bias that hurt people and is something I regret doing to this day,
Going into great detail about the entire incident, she understood what she did wrong and felt greatly apologetic for her actions. Wanting to understand exactly how she affected those around her, she mentioned that she would educate herself on the history behind blackface and the impact that it can have.
However, the regret that I live with pales in comparison to the lived experiences of so many. My commitment has been to reflect and act differently. Not perfectly, but hopefully with a more developed understanding that racism and white supremacy is harmful to ALL people.
While Hough was extremely regretful of her past actions, the same was not the case for Robert Downey Jr. However, his reasoning behind wearing blackface makes many think that his actions were just.
Robert Downey Jr Refuses To Apologize For His Blackface
When Robert Downey Jr starred in Tropic Thunder, he was heavily criticized by viewers for wearing blackface, as he had to be painted into a different race to fit the character that he was playing. As times have changed, so has the actor, and there have been several causes that he has actively been a part of. However, he continues to stand by the decisions that were taken during the filming of the 2008 film.
During an interview with Rob Lowe’s “Literally” podcast, Downey Jr talked about the design choice when it came to his character, and his take was quite interesting. The actor put special emphasis on the fact that the film was not trying to get away with blackface but acting as a social commentary against it.
The language was saying, ‘Hey, this is the reason that we’re doing these things that, in a vacuum, you could pick apart and say are wrong and bad,
There used to be an understanding with an audience, and I’m not saying that the audience is no longer understanding — I’m saying that things have gotten very muddied.
The film was supposed to be a mockery of all of the cheesy and problematic tropes that have existed in Hollywood. Rather than spoon-feeding information to the audience, they created Downey Jr’s character as a personification of the racially limited history that the industry and cinema, as a whole, have.
The spirit that [Ben] Stiller directed and cast and shot ‘Tropic Thunder’ in was, essentially, as a railing against all of these tropes that are not right and [that] had been perpetuated for too long.
According to Downey, if people take the film at face value, they are bound to get angry as a famous actor is painting himself brown to make fun of an entire group of people. However, further inspection showcases a mockery of the entire trope and those who took part in it rather than doing it themselves.
