Dan Aykroyd says he “couldn’t get away” with blackface today
Actor and comedian Dan Aykroyd has admitted that he “probably couldn’t get away with” putting on blackface for a movie role in today’s times.
In a new interview with The Daily Beast, the comedy icon remembered working on the 1983 comedy film Trading Places with fellow funnyman Eddie Murphy. In the film, Aykroyd’s character dresses up in blackface and dreadlocks and uses a Caribbean accent.
“I was in blackface in that film, and I probably couldn’t get away with it now,” Aykroyd said. “Eddie and I were improvising there. Eddie is a Black man, and his entourage were all Black people, and I don’t think they batted an eye.”
He continued: “There was no objection then; nobody said anything. It was just a good comic beat that was truthful to the story.” The actor went on to admit that he wouldn’t “choose” to use blackface in a role today, nor would he be “allowed” to.
“I probably wouldn’t be allowed to do a Jamaican accent, white face or Black,” he said. “In these days we’re living in, all that’s out the window. I would be hard-pressed to do an English accent and get away with it. They’d say, ‘Oh, you’re not English; you can’t do it.'”
Jamie Lee Curtis had also starred in the film and had previously expressed her regret over filming a nude scene for it, admitting that she would be unlikely to do it again given the chance.
Check out the trailer for Trading Places below.
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