BOPsy needs a little bit of color and flavor, so we’ve brought Rob Walters aboard as our token African-American correspondent. Here’s a little jive talk from Rob.. Take it away…

It takes a white man with balls to play a black man…and those balls have to be more than just big and swarthy.

Anyone can Al Jolson their way through a blackface performance…ask Ted Danson. But to really elevate your screen time from a jive talking, jheri curled wannabe like C. Thomas Howell in “Soul Man“, to a dreadlocked and loaded rastaman like Gary Oldman as ‘Drexel’ in “True Romance,” you’ve gotta be an actor of quality and adventure. Robert Downey Jr. is both.

Peep this trailer for “Tropic Thunder” where Robert Downey Jr. goes black-face:

Seeing Downey Jr. in the trailer, one word comes to mind…negro. Seriously, I hope he’s good, but not too good…it’s hard enough with Will-Morgan-Denzel-Sam Jackson taking all the roles. Now, young black actors gotta worry about Robert Downey Jr. too?

Damn!

- Rob Walters