Dan Aykroyd Addresses Blackface in ‘Trading Places,’ Says He “Wouldn’t Choose to Do” the Part Today

Abbey White
·2 min read
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Dan Aykroyd says that he wouldn’t do blackface today like he did opposite Eddie Murphy in 1983’s Trading Places.

The comedian, writer and actor reflected on the film’s use of it in the John Landis-directed class-swap comedy that opened 40 years ago in a recent interview with The Daily Beast. In addition to discussing how the movie impacted his and rising Saturday Night Live star Murphy’s career, working with Jamie Lee Curtis and Landis’ filmmaking style, Aykroyd touched on the elements of the film, particularly its use of the makeup technique that’s historically rooted in racism, that wouldn’t play in Hollywood today.

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“I was in blackface in that film and I probably couldn’t get away with it now,” Aykroyd said while discussing how his character, Louis Winthorpe III, appeared as a Jamaican character with dreadlocks and a stereotypical Caribbean accent. “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.”

Despite the intention and reaction to it then, the star of the film — which saw his investor character trading places with Murphy’s con artist as part of a bet by two millionaires — said he wouldn’t choose to do something like that now.

“I probably wouldn’t choose to do a blackface part, nor would I be allowed to do it. 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.'”

While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter for a 2021 interview about Ghostbusters: Afterlife, working with the late John Candy and more, the actor addressed the way comedy has changed over time and why there’s currently “enough range in humor” that comedians don’t have to “go pulling any divisive cards to get a laugh.

“There is so much in the world to comment on that is outside the realm of offensiveness. As a writer, you can go to other areas and have successful creative endeavors. Scatological humor is fun. It’s easy laughs. But there is more intelligent writing that can happen if you stay away from the offensive material that should be rightly canceled for its hurtfulness,” he said. “Who can be the subject of an impression today? That’s an area of discussion. Can I do my James Brown imitation? He was one of my best friends. I do his voice pretty good. But maybe I shouldn’t anymore.”

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