The Big Picture

• Ben Stiller's success with Tropic Thunder allowed him to pursue more ambitious filmmaking projects.
• Tropic Thunder humorously critiques method acting in Hollywood and the superficiality of the industry.
• The film marked a shift in Stiller's career towards more mature and serious projects post-release.

There aren’t many artists in the industry right now who’ve taken such dramatic career transitions as Ben Stiller. Stiller first made a name for himself in mainstream comedies in the 1990s, including Heavyweights and There’s Something About Mary. While he was undeniably a strong screen presence, Stiller also harbored ambitions as a filmmaker; 1994’s Reality Bites was an acclaimed examination of Generation X anxieties, and Zoolander was a hilarious spoof of the fashion industry. However, Stiller’s success as a filmmaker peaked with the release of Tropic Thunder, an epic parody of Hollywood war films and celebrity culture. The film became a significant commercial success and earned Robert Downey Jr. an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

While there’s a fair amount of broad humor in Tropic Thunder, the film was specifically designed to lampoon the superficiality of actors. Stiller took shots at many of the industry’s most prominent stars, showing how ridiculous the “method acting” process really is when historical recreations are involved. The film ended up allowing Stiller to pursue even more ambitious projects in the subsequent decades, but the idea for Tropic Thunder emerged during the filming of Steven Spielberg’s classic war drama Empire of the Sun.

One of Ben Stiller's First Roles Was in Spielberg's ‘Empire of the Sun'

Empire of the Sun was a World War II epic that followed the young Jim Graham (Christian Bale) after the Japanese invasion of China separates him from his family, forcing him to go on a long trek throughout the conflict. Although Bale nearly quit acting as a result of the grueling production, the film drew acclaim for showing a realistic depiction of a prisoner-of-war. At one point in the story, Jim and his fellow captives are forced to survive as the war wages on. Stiller got one of his first roles playing a prisoner of war alongside John Malkovich and Joe Pantaliano. Given that he had not yet become a breakout star on The Ben Stiller Show, Stiller was still a relative unknown at the time of the film’s production.

During the production of Empire of the Sun, it was commonplace for actors to go through extensive training to prepare them for the film’s historical era. Stiller found the idea behind “the fake boot camps” amusing, as actors would occasionally compare themselves to the characters they were portraying. Stiller said that some of his co-stars would “go off with some military adviser and have two weeks of camping out, getting shot at, learning how to shoot their guns and pretending to be soldiers.” This wasn’t an uncommon practice for World War II films, but it did fuel Stiller’s creative engines when he began thinking about a comedic spin on the material.

While it was the subject of satire in Tropic Thunder, boot camps are still used by production crews to prepare actors for war projects. Spielberg famously put the stars of Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan through an intense training regime. In addition to learning the responsibilities of service, the cast learned to connect with each other so they could realistically depict their onscreen relationships.

‘Tropic Thunder’ Made Fun of Method Acting

Stiller’s experiences shooting Empire of the Sun inspired the story of Tropic Thunder, which focused on a group of Hollywood actors who venture into the jungle to shoot a war epic. Tugg Speedman (Stiller), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.), Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), and Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) are told by their ambitious director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) that the only way to prepare for a Vietnam War movie is to put themselves in a similarly dangerous position. The situation goes disastrously awry when Tugg realizes that they’ve found themselves in a real war, and must become actual heroes if they want to survive.

Although the plot of Tropic Thunder mirrors classic Vietnam War movies like Apocalypse Now and Platoon, Stiller uses the Lazarus character to make fun of “method actors” like Daniel Day-Lewis and Colin Farrell. Lazarus’ refusal to break character, even when filming is thwarted, adds some of the film’s most humorous moments. Although it’s a film that’s filled with absurdist humor, Tropic Thunder benefitted from Stiller’s personal experiences, which made the film’s satire of Hollywood more authentic. Tropic Thunder certainly is an exaggerated look at film production, but it makes insightful points about actors’ egos and the uncaring nature of studio executives. Stiller was also unsparing in his own performance, as he portrayed a “past his prime” action star who could be compared to Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Willis.

Stiller Had Become a More Mature Filmmaker

Zoolander and Reality Bites had been impressive features, but Stiller proved that he could take on more ambitious projects in the aftermath of Tropic Thunder. The film wasn’t just a standard studio comedy, but an action film that created its alternate version of Hollywood. The film did attract some controversy for its jokes about blackface and whitewashing, but it nonetheless started important conversations that continue to be relevant in the industry.

Tropic Thunder initiated a new era in Stiller’s career where he began working on more serious projects. Although his fantasy epic The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and his comedy sequel Zoolander 2 were met with negative reviews, Stiller received praise for his gritty prison drama Escape at Dannemora on Showtime and accolades for directing the science fiction series Severance on Apple TV+, which is expected to return later this year. But without Stiller's experience on the set of Empire of the Sun, we likely wouldn't have Tropic Thunder and the Stiller of today.

Tropic Thunder is streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S.

Watch on Paramount+