Megyn Kelly spoke out on Twitter Wednesday about her infamous ousting from NBC News, questioning why NBCUniversal “cancelled” her but Robert Downey Jr. was not similarly “cancelled” for wearing blackface in the film “Tropic Thunder.” That movie was filmed partially at Universal Studios and distributed in some foreign territories by Universal Pictures International (Paramount released the film in the U.S.).
Sharing a Page Six article called “Why Robert Downey Jr. Doesn’t regret wearing blackface in ‘Tropic Thunder,’” she wrote, “R. Downey Jr: wears blackface for Universal w/o regret bc it ‘sparked a necessary convo.’ Univer.: yay Robert! Me: Never worn blackface but had one of those ‘necessary convos’ re how standard seems to have changed over time.NBC-Univer: F.U.! Cancelled!”
R. Downey Jr: wears blackface for Universal w/o regret bc it “sparked a necessary convo.” Univer.: yay Robert!👏🏻
Me: Never worn blackface but had one of those “necessary convos” re how standard seems to have changed over time.NBC-Univer: F.U.! Cancelled! https://t.co/t1uIj6chPJ— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) January 23, 2020
In the 2008 film, Downey played a white movie star who takes method acting to an extreme by undergoing a procedure that will make him black. In the interview referenced by Kelly, Downey says he takes “exception” to saying he was in the wrong for donning blackface because the point of the plot line was to show how “wrong” wearing blackface actually is.
In October 2018, Kelly used her perch at NBC’s “Today” to talk about blackface in Halloween costumes, saying, “What is racist? You get in trouble if you’re a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. When I was a kid that was OK as long as you were dressing up as a character.”
She lost her job days later.
A representative for NBCUniversal did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.