Jamie Foxx Directed A Movie With Robert Downey Jr. Playing A Mexican, Will Release It When ‘People Go Back to Laughing’

Jamie Foxx has opened up about why he hasn't released his film All-Star Weekend, which has been collecting dust for several years.

Unsurprisingly, it has everything to do with people being way too sensitive when it comes to comedy.

Foxx both directs and stars in the movie, alongside Jeremy Piven. It's about two friends who go on a trip to the NBA All-Star Game, but their journey is marred by issues.

While we don't know for sure, it's reasonable to assume that from that point on, hilarity will ensue.

The film (fittingly) has an all-star cast that features Foxx, Piven, Benicio del Toro, Gerard Butler, and Eva Longoria. Robert Downey Jr. is also in the movie playing a Mexican.

And — as you may have guessed — therein lies Foxx's conundrum.

Somewhere, John Leguizamo is seething with rage.

Foxx Is Waiting For Us To Go Back To Laughing

“It’s been tough with the lay of the land when it comes to comedy,” Foxx said in an interview with CinemaBlend. “We’re trying to break open the sensitive corners where people go back to laughing again… We hope to keep them laughing and run them right into ‘All-Star Weekend’ because we were definitely going for it.”

The irony of this situation is how it echoes another one Downey found himself in with the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder. That movie is easily one of -- if not the best -- comedies of the last fifteen to twenty years.

In that film, he plays a white actor who has his skin surgically altered so he can play a Black character. Anyone paying attention knew that the character made fun of the absurd lengths method actors take to get into character.

Of course, there were still those who didn't bother to pick up on that last tidbit of info and started shrieking that the character was racist. That still gets brought up to this day.

Robert Downey Jr. taking in a Dodgers game, probably wondering when Jamie Foxx will release the film All-Star Game. He plays a Mexican character in the shelved comedy. (Photo by Jerritt Clark/GC Images)

In 2017, Foxx mentioned Downey's performance in Tropic Thunder as the reason he called him up to appear in his movie.

“I called Robert, I said, ‘I need you to play a Mexican.’ I said, ‘S***, you played the Black dude and you killed that s***.’ We got to be able to do characters,” Foxx said.

The point of acting is that actors play characters who are different than themselves. It's getting to the point that if an actor isn't from the same neighborhood as their character, there's an issue.

Jamie Foxx knows that better than anyone. In All-Star Weekend, he plays multiple parts including a racist, white police officer. You don't hear many complaints about that, nor should you.

We've Seen Jamie Foxx at All-Star weekends many times. Don't expect to see him in All-Star Weekend any time soon. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

Foxx Not Releasing All-Star Weekend Is A Victory For The Overly-Sensitive

Not only have some people become softer when it comes to comedy, they've also become more vocal about it. The best thing to do would be to put the film out anyway and just ignore the "backlash."

It's tough to blame Jamie Foxx for not wanting to deal with the same faux-rage that his pal Dave Chappelle deals with every time he puts out a special.

Unfortunately, back in May, the film's co-star Jeremy Piven said that All-Star Weekend will probably never be released because “Jamie doesn’t want to release it.”

Well, it's his decision. Unfortunately, throwing in the towel because he doesn't want to stand up to the mob of whiners and blue checkmarks counts as a win for over-sensitivity.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle