Storm expected as Downey Jr ‘blacks up’

Against the backdrop of growing racial tension in the Democratic presidential race - Hillary Clinton's advisor Geraldine Ferraro resigned yesterday after causing a storm with her remark that Barack Obama was only doing well because he was black - actor Robert Downey Jr knows he is likely to attract controversy with his latest role. In the forthcoming action comedy Tropic Thunder, written and directed by co-star Ben Stiller, Downey (pictured) plays a classically trained actor who "blacks up" to play an African-American character in a Vietnam War blockbuster.

Stiller, back in the director's chair for the first time since his 2001 male-model-baiting cult film Zoolander, has admitted being nervous about Downey’s race-switch in the film, saying he has "no idea how people would respond to it". But Downey, already a controversial figure in Hollywood for his drug addictions, admitted: "If it's done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago. If you don't do it right, we're going to hell."

Like Angelina Jolie, who drew flak for playing mixed-race journalist Marianne Pearl in A Mighty Heart, Downey has already attracted the ire of bloggers. "Is there a shortage of black male actors in Hollywood willing to take on roles as… black men?" wrote one.