Full retard.
I have had something almost exactly like the following conversation with friends on several occasions. If I wasn't going to go see "Tropic Thunder" before, I am now after reading this in an interview with Robert Downey, Jr in the May GQ:
(Ben)Stiller plays action-film star Tugg Speedman, who has just bombed in a period drama as Simple Jack, a retarded man living in the 1920s. Still aching from the critical drubbing he received for making the worst movie ever, Speedman brings up the subject with Downey’s Lazarus, who knows a thing or two about the movie business but will only respond in the voice of a combat-hardened African-American sergeant (he is playing a white actor who is portraying a black character, complete with the skin pigmentation, and will not break character).
“Oh yeah, you really swung for the fences on that. You went all out,” Downey says, his voice dropping and this full-bodied, scratchy baritone burbling out.
“So Ben’s character says to me,” Downey continues, now mimicking Stiller’s slightly higher-pitched, softer tone, “ ‘When I was playing Jack, I almost had to learn what it was like to not be retarded, because I became so retarded. I had to eat retarded, sleep retarded.’ ”
“Yeah! For a minute, it’s like you was the dumbest motherfucker ever lived.”
“Thanks,” Stiller’s character says.
“Hats off for goin’ there. Specially knowin’ how the Academy is about that shit.”
Now impish again, he lets his shoulders drop, jaw sag, imitating Stiller. “The what?”
“Well, everyone knows you don’t go full retard. Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man. Look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. He can count eight decks of cards. Slow, yes. Retarded, no. Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump. Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Got them braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants offa Nixon and won a Ping-Pong competition. Can’t win fuckin’ Ping-Pong being retarded. Then we got the master, Peter Sellers in Being There. Infantile, yes. Retarded, no. Man, you went full retard.” Downey glares at me, whispering in his Osirus voice, “Never go full retard.” He cracks himself up, pauses, gets it back, and says, “You don’t believe me, ask Sean Penn. 2001. I Am Sam. Went full retard. Went home with nothin’.”
(Ben)Stiller plays action-film star Tugg Speedman, who has just bombed in a period drama as Simple Jack, a retarded man living in the 1920s. Still aching from the critical drubbing he received for making the worst movie ever, Speedman brings up the subject with Downey’s Lazarus, who knows a thing or two about the movie business but will only respond in the voice of a combat-hardened African-American sergeant (he is playing a white actor who is portraying a black character, complete with the skin pigmentation, and will not break character).
“Oh yeah, you really swung for the fences on that. You went all out,” Downey says, his voice dropping and this full-bodied, scratchy baritone burbling out.
“So Ben’s character says to me,” Downey continues, now mimicking Stiller’s slightly higher-pitched, softer tone, “ ‘When I was playing Jack, I almost had to learn what it was like to not be retarded, because I became so retarded. I had to eat retarded, sleep retarded.’ ”
“Yeah! For a minute, it’s like you was the dumbest motherfucker ever lived.”
“Thanks,” Stiller’s character says.
“Hats off for goin’ there. Specially knowin’ how the Academy is about that shit.”
Now impish again, he lets his shoulders drop, jaw sag, imitating Stiller. “The what?”
“Well, everyone knows you don’t go full retard. Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man. Look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. He can count eight decks of cards. Slow, yes. Retarded, no. Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump. Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Got them braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants offa Nixon and won a Ping-Pong competition. Can’t win fuckin’ Ping-Pong being retarded. Then we got the master, Peter Sellers in Being There. Infantile, yes. Retarded, no. Man, you went full retard.” Downey glares at me, whispering in his Osirus voice, “Never go full retard.” He cracks himself up, pauses, gets it back, and says, “You don’t believe me, ask Sean Penn. 2001. I Am Sam. Went full retard. Went home with nothin’.”