Posted on 08/05/2008 2:40:09 PM PDT by winstonwolf33
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Being an actor is nothing like being a Marine. For an actor, even a 30-minute helicopter ride from Burbank to Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego, can seem daunting.
Before boarding a chopper for a special screening of Tropic Thunder at the base, star Robert Downey Jr. confessed: "I'm hoping the fact that I might puke right now is actually going to have the reverse effect, and that I'll suddenly be steady and calm by being in a helicopter."
Downey, along with co-stars Ben Stiller and Jack Black, landed safely. "It was pretty tame, actually," Stiller said after buzzing in over live-fire ranges, barracks and rolling hillsides.
"Sorry we couldn't get some explosions going off in the background," Lt. Ken Kunze joked as he greeted the actors at the base's landing strip.
"It felt like that kind of moment," Black told him.
Instead of the typical premiere's parade of limos, an entourage of Marines chauffeured the actors from the airstrip in armored Humvees.
"This is crazy," Stiller said as he donned a military-required helmet and flak jacket for the ride. "It's nice to be out of the norm, though."
The driver, Sgt. Clay Kirk, who oversaw prisoners of war as a field military police officer in Iraq, found celebrity duty much easier.
"Marines love you," he told Stiller, who responded, "Really?" with seemingly genuine surprise.
The Humvees pulled up outside the theater and before a mob of cheering fans. The service members and their spouses and children collected autographs, shouted favorite catchphrases and posed for photos — often asking Stiller to make his pouty "Blue Steel" expression from the modeling spoof Zoolander. He repeatedly obliged.
But it was Black, Downey said, who "won the day out there" — but not for his acting. Many gathered at the theater were fans of Black's comedic metal-rock duo Tenacious D. "They wanted me to sign a Tenacious D DVD just because I had a cameo in the movie," Stiller joked.
Even when it came time to dim the lights for the screening, the audience was reluctant to let the actors leave. One man yelled out for Stiller to tell a joke. Another threw a pair of sunglasses up to Downey, who caught them, put them on and was about to walk off before realizing the Marine had been proposing a trade: his glasses for the actor's porkpie hat. Without hesitation, Downey whipped off the hat and flung it to him.
"We're really happy to be here," Stiller told them. "And thank you for everything you do protecting our country."
My son-in-law and my grandson were there.
Arugh-Uughaa!!
Downey, Stiller and Black? We know whose acting ability will be carrying this movie.
Nice story
I saw Tropic Thunder last night and it was hilarious.
I saw it a few nights ago and didn’t care one bit for the graphic description of homosexual sex. I won’t be seeing so much of Ben Stiller’s movies going forward...I guess sometimes words alone can constitute pornography.
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