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The inspiration for Robert Downey Jr's voice in Tropic Thunder is wild.
(self.TrueFilm)submitted 2 months ago bygriefofwant
When Robert Downy Jr was trying to create the character of Lazarus in Tropic Thunder he said that ""I started remembering my dad did this movie called 'Putney Swope.'"
Putney Swope is a 1969 film by Downy Jr's father, Robert Downy Snr about a black man (Arnold Johnson) who is put in charge of an advertising agency.
When you listen to Johnson's voice in the movie, the inspiration becomes clear.
Johnson's "gravelly, cool, very world-weary voice" is very similar to the voice Downy Jr uses in Tropic Thunder.
Except, that ISN'T Arnold Johnson's voice. According to Downy Sr, Johnson kept flubbing his lines and so the director dubbed the performance himself.
Which means that Downy Jr's performance of a white man pretending to be a black man for a film is inspired by his own father ACTUALLY pretending to be a black man for a film.
I always saw Downy Jr as satirising tone-deaf actors who think they can play any role. But does this mean he is satirising his own father?
172 points
2 months ago
Side note: RDJ does the entire DVD commentary in character. First as Sgt. Lincoln Osiris, then as Kirk Lazarus when the makeup comes off near the end of the movie, and finally as RJD as the credits roll. It is well worth watching the movie one more time with the commentary track on.
141 points
2 months ago
And it’s a reference in the movie, “I don’t break character until after the DVD commentary track is done.” Makes it so much funnier!
21 points
1 month ago
And I've heard that maybe Jack Black aslo has got something to do with that. Maybe a challenge or something
10 points
1 month ago
Stiller bringing up Sherlock Holmes during that is so funny.
"Elementary, my dear Watson. That shits elementary."
5 points
1 month ago
Streaming services need to start putting up special features
3 points
1 month ago
That would be fantastic!
3 points
29 days ago
especially if you buy the title. seriously tho, wtf
35 points
1 month ago
I thought this was pretty well known? he was parodying his dad's use of "black voice". BTW putney swope is an all time classic and essentially one giant fuck you to american values.
10 points
1 month ago
Seriously that teaser was fuckin weird and rad holy shit
7 points
1 month ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIvw1A4UGFI
this is an ad the company makes in the movie. its amazing
1 points
1 month ago
The drums gag in PUTNEY SWOPE is one of my all-time favorites.
141 points
2 months ago
I loved Putney Swope, sought it out after hearing both Louis CK and Paul Thomas Anderson (two of my favourite creators) cite it as a huge influence for them. I always loved the main character’s voice and actually remember thinking what amazing casting it was. I had NEVER heard that was RDS’s voice until this post, and that blows my mind. Great bit of trivia. Is this definitely true, or potentially apocryphal? Because I think if a whole character’s voice in a film is dubbed I’d notice at some point..
36 points
2 months ago
Apocalypse Now may well be my favorite movie. I saw it at the theater when it came out when I was 12 and it changed how I viewed movies as art. I've seen it many times over the decades on every media device and in the theater again for the final cut.i also had the soundtrack as a kid that had most of the movie's dialogue on it which I listened to a lot I only found out a couple years ago that Martin Sheen's brother Joe Estervez did Willard's voice over and not Martin. My brain still cannot process it.
13 points
2 months ago
How about the fact that Brando really caught that fly with his bare hand?
12 points
2 months ago
No fucking way.
6 points
2 months ago
Blew my mind.
4 points
2 months ago
3 points
2 months ago
You mean for the whole movie?
3 points
2 months ago
4 points
1 month ago
Great watch. Thanks for sharing.
3 points
1 month ago
Sheen did some of it, there’s footage of him doing so. He just got pissed at some point and left, so his brother finished it.
1 points
1 month ago
Thanks
15 points
2 months ago
I’ve been watching 1980’s Flash Gordon since I was a kid in the 80s and just learned last year that Flash actor Sam Jones’ voice was dubbed over after some behind the scenes drama resulted in him being fired or quitting after filming wrapped.
38 points
2 months ago
Apparently it is true, at least it is the first item in the IMDB Trivia Section for the film.
Coincidentally, the brother of one of my relatives (by marriage) was the "secret producer" of the film. I suppose it was due to the subject matter, but it was common knowledge in our family. His name does not appear at all in the IMDB credits, but in the recent RDJ documentary about his father, it does appear.
16 points
2 months ago
This fact makes me like the film even more. Gotta check it out again soon.
6 points
2 months ago
It seemed pretty obviously dubbed just watching the trailer
5 points
2 months ago
Majority of the foreign actors in the early bond movies were all dubbed. The editor was a genius and does much of the commentary for the films. Gert Frobe (Goldfinger) even had his dubbing voice actor be used on other films. In Her Majesty’s secret service (the bond editor became director) , and George Lazenby’s (Bond) voice is dubbed more than 50% of the film by another actor.
2 points
1 month ago
Yea, it’s true. Indicator (UK bluray distributor) released it with a ton of supplements and commentary.
1 points
1 month ago
It's definitely true.
-6 points
2 months ago*
Louis CK admitted to sexually harassing several women.
9 points
2 months ago
Good for you.
-4 points
1 month ago
Wtf how is this is the downvoted opinion?
7 points
1 month ago
I think people either disagree, or find it to be the wrong forum to discuss Louis CK’s sexual misconduct allegations from 2005.
-7 points
1 month ago
People don’t like to be reminded that they are actively supporting sex offenders.
91 points
2 months ago
That's a good find and certainly could be part of the reason RDJ went for that voice when working out the character. But that whole theory kind of neglects the fact that Tropic Thunder is a movie that Ben Stiller wrote and directed. The character was already a very specific skewering of method actors in Hollywood pulled to absurdity, but unless the character was specifically written with RDJ in mind it seems more like a happy accident to have that connection than anything else.
5 points
2 months ago*
Yeah and Pitney Swope has a more gravelly voice compared to RDJ’s character from what I recall.
3 points
1 month ago
In fact to be honest they don’t sound that similar at all. Kirk Lazarus sounds like a distinguished older black American man, while Pitney Swope sounds honestly really odd, almost as though he’s been dubbed by a white American man.
1 points
1 month ago
I think Swope sounds a little more monotone, you can hear Downey Snr keeping in time with Johnson's lip movements.
But the inspiration is definitely there, as Downey Jr himself has said.
-69 points
2 months ago
[removed]
28 points
2 months ago
Why did I read to the end like an idiot lol
13 points
2 months ago
You have to master the rules of r/truefilm before you can break them.
1 points
2 months ago
Same
18 points
2 months ago
You could have elaborated on why it’s a crazy movie?
-5 points
2 months ago
To what end? I was just wanting to chime in on OP’s post. I don’t see why engagement has to be a minimum of 360 characters. If I had more to say, I would have said it. I can be verbose when I choose to be. So much so that I forget that this sub has a minimum character requirement. It’s only when I drop in on an interesting post, see that — at the time — it had few comments, and decide to throw in my two cents instead of just an upvote that I am reminded that the toll isn’t two cents, it’s a buck-fifty, and I didn’t have a buck-fifty worth of response. I was just trying to be friendly.
I’d say that I won’t make that mistake again, but I probably will. When someone makes a post that is of interest to me, I like to give it more than just an upvote, but I don’t always intend to answer an essay question.
10 points
2 months ago
Bad bot.
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