Jamie Foxx Blames The State Of Comedy For Why We Might Not Ever See His 2016 Film “All-Star Weekend” In Which Robert Downey Jr. Plays A Mexican Man
As Variety reports, Jamie Foxx says his 2016 directorial feature debut, All-Star Weekend, a comedy starring Foxx and Jeremy Piven as “two best friends who win tickets to the annual NBA event” whose road trip to LA is “upended by a handful of wacky characters,” might never be released due to the “current state of comedy.” Jamie apparently doesn’t think we can handle a wacky character like “Mexican Stranger,” played by Robert Downey Jr. Alas, it seems the so-called woke mob has struck again. First, they came for The Alamo, but I was not a history major and am unclear on how exactly that played out— so I said nothing. Then they came for Señor Frog’s Cinco de Mayo $2 margarita special, but I did not have one near me— so I said nothing. Then they came for my Mexican pizza and I said, OH HEEEEELL NO!— And they brought it back. So obviously the point here is that if Jamie wants All-Star-Weekend to ever see the light of day, he needs to recast “Mexican Stranger” with Doja Cat and do some reshoots.
While Jamie seems to be doing alright, Jeremy’s most high-profile gig of late has been selling Cameos with a guaranteed appearance by his French Bulldog, Bubba, for $300, down from the $15,000 Zoom calls he was trying to sell towards the beginning of the pandemic. And ASW was completed before Jeremy “took one for the team” during the #metoo movement, so I’m not sure the sorry state of comedy is really the primary driver here. Besides, the jokes must be stale as shit by now. It’s like, were we even making fun of Mexicans before Donald Trump took office? Variety reports:
Jamie Foxx recently told CinemaBlend that his unreleased directorial effort “All-Star Weekend” remains shelved due to the current state of comedy. The Oscar winner shot the comedy in 2016 with a cast that includes Jeremy Piven, Robert Downey Jr., Benicio del Toro, Gerard Butler and Eva Longoria.
“All-Star Weekend” stars Foxx and Piven as two best friends who win tickets to the annual NBA event. Their characters take a road trip to Los Angeles to attend the All-Star Game, but their journey is upended by a handful of wacky characters. Downey Jr. took a page from his “Tropic Thunder” playbook and starred as a Mexican man in “All-Star Weekend,” while one of Foxx’s multiple roles was allegedly a white racist cop. The film has sat on the shelf unreleased for several years.
“It’s been tough with the lay of the land when it comes to comedy,” Foxx told CinemaBlend when asked when fans might be able to see “All-Star Weekend” released. “We’re trying to break open the sensitive corners where people go back to laughing again… We hope to keep them laughing and run them right into ‘All-Star Weekend’ because we were definitely going for it.”
It sounds like the script went for it so hard, that RDJ had second thoughts about taking the role. According to Entertainment Weekly:
EW has reached out to a rep for Foxx for further comment, but it’s unclear exactly what he meant by opening “those sensitive corners.” That said, his previous remarks about the film could offer a hint as to why he might be concerned about running afoul of cultural sensitivities. “We all play different characters,” he said while appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience in 2017. “I play a white, racist cop. I’ll show it to you. I’ll grab the thing and show it to you. Robert Downey Jr. plays a Mexican. I called Robert and I said, ‘Listen, I need you to play a Mexican.’ He said, ‘Dude, here’s the deal. Sure. F— it. Sure. Why not? F— it. Sure. Of course. Mexican. Whatever.'”
But Downey, who earned an Oscar nomination along with a wave of criticism for wearing blackface in the 2008 satire Tropic Thunder, apparently did have some eventual reservations about his role in All-Star Weekend, according to Foxx, who told Rogan that Downey later texted him saying, “I’m nervous to play the Mexican.”
Coward. Do you think Marlon Brando ever texted that to Elia Kazan? I think not. I also think not to Jamie having ever even watched Tropic Thunder. If he had, he’d know that RDJ was playing a white man in blackface playing a Black man. The joke was on whitey. What’s the joke if he’s making an actual cameo as an actual Mexican in 2016? Is he just wandering around trying to find someone who will give him a receipt for his payment towards Trump’s wall all “el hombre naranja dice que debo por esto?” Whatever the joke was, I’m sure RDJ hopes we never find out.