Dan Aykroyd Says ‘I Wouldn’t Choose to Do Blackface’ Today, 40 Years After Doing It in ‘Trading Places’: ‘Nor Would I Be Allowed to Do It’
Zack Sharf Digital News Director Dan Akyroyd admitted in a recent interview with The Daily Beast that he probably would not put on Blackface for a movie role today like he did 40 years ago in the blockbuster comedy “Trading Places.” Akyroyd starred in the John Landis-directed film as a rich investment broker who switches lives with a broke con artist, played by Eddie Murphy. Akyroyd’s character appears in Blackface and sports dreadlocks and a Caribbean accent during one scene set on New Year’s Eve. “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. There was no objection then; nobody said anything. It was just a good comic beat that was truthful to the story.”