Dan Aykroyd Addresses Blackface in ‘Trading Places,’ Says He “Wouldn’t Choose to Do” the Part Today
Dan Aykroyd says that he wouldn’t do blackface today like he did opposite Eddie Murphy in 1983’s Trading Places.
The comedian, writer and actor reflected on the film’s use of it in the John Landis-directed class-swap comedy that opened 40 years ago in a recent interview with The Daily Beast. In addition to discussing how the movie impacted his and rising Saturday Night Live star Murphy’s career, working with Jamie Lee Curtis and Landis’ filmmaking style, Aykroyd touched on the elements of the film, particularly its use of the makeup technique that’s historically rooted in racism, that wouldn’t play in Hollywood today.
“I was in blackface in that film and I probably couldn’t get away with it now,” Aykroyd said while discussing how his character, Louis Winthorpe III, appeared as a Jamaican character with dreadlocks and a stereotypical Caribbean accent. “Eddie and I were improvising there.
The comedian, writer and actor reflected on the film’s use of it in the John Landis-directed class-swap comedy that opened 40 years ago in a recent interview with The Daily Beast. In addition to discussing how the movie impacted his and rising Saturday Night Live star Murphy’s career, working with Jamie Lee Curtis and Landis’ filmmaking style, Aykroyd touched on the elements of the film, particularly its use of the makeup technique that’s historically rooted in racism, that wouldn’t play in Hollywood today.
“I was in blackface in that film and I probably couldn’t get away with it now,” Aykroyd said while discussing how his character, Louis Winthorpe III, appeared as a Jamaican character with dreadlocks and a stereotypical Caribbean accent. “Eddie and I were improvising there.
- 6/28/2023
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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