Nobody that I know of got mad at Tropic Thunder doing blackface. None of the actual black co-stars seemed to mind… because it was just on continuing exercise in poking fun at the idea of Blackface. And it was beautiful.
Before he played the lead role in District 9, Sharlto Copley worked in the industry as a small-time film producer, and had produced two short films.
One of his close friends, Neill Blomkamp, was planning to write and direct District 9, and offered the role to Copley. Despite having absolutely no prior acting education or experience, Copley accepted the offer.
He nailed the role, playing a clueless but well-meaning private company worker who tries his best to handle all the horrible stuff thrown his way. You’d hate him for how stupid and ignorant he is yet feel sad for him at the same time.
District 9 blew up at the box office and roped in many film award nominations.
Copley continued acting. He went on to do many other movie roles, some of his most famous being the roles of Agent Kruger in Elysium and King Stefan in Maleficent.
While promoting another film on reddit, he was asked how he scored the role in District 9. He revealed how he was actually brought in to work on the film as a producer but was later given the role.
Q: How psyched were you when you found out you were going to be the lead in District 9? Were you always supposed to be when Neill turned it into a feature?
Copley: It was a very surreal moment when Neill offered me the lead in D9. I was meant to produce that film and I only did a little test to show Peter Jackson what a stereotypically "afrikaans bureaucrat" was. The phone call where Neill offered me the role will be etched into my mind for ever. It may sound strange but I knew my life would change. It was one of those moments where you feel the stars have lined up.[1]
Downey jr. gave us beautiful quotes. Beautiful memes. He gave us… life. He was so, so much to so many people. But never too much.
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