Dan Aykroyd at the AFI Awards.
Photo: Kevin Winters. All rights reserved.
Comedian and actor Dan Aykroyd (“Ghostbusters”) wouldn’t be blackfacing in film today. With this statement he referred to the 1983 comedy “The Soldiers of Fortune” in an interview, in which he can be seen alongside Eddie Murphy. In one of the film’s most iconic scenes, Aykroyd’s character impersonates a Jamaican.
“The Soldiers of Fortune” in check:
Aykroyd: “I wouldn’t be allowed to get away today”
Speaking to US magazine The Daily Beast, the mime admitted he probably wouldn’t get away with such an appearance these days. “I would [jetzt] would not take on a role with blackface, nor would I be allowed to do so,” Aykroyd said of the hit comedy from the ’80s.
In the finale of “The Soldiers of Fortune,” he, along with Academy Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) and Eddie Murphy (“Dream Girls”) are seen trying to prank a courier. Aykroyd’s character poses as a Jamaican – complete with his face painted black and a heavy accent.
“Eddie and I were improvising back then. Eddie is a Black man, his entire entourage was Black, and none of them cared. […] It was just a good comedy moment that fitted into the story,” the Canadian continued.
Blackfacing originated as a theatrical and entertainment masquerade in the 18th and 19th centuries, in which white actors would paint their faces in black and mimic PoC – which is racist, however.