Actor/director Ben Stiller is defending his latest flick “Tropic Thunder” after learning that a bunch of disability groups are planning to picket the LA premiere of the movie.

“Tropic Thunder” is an action comedy starring Ben Stiller (he is also the director), Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. as a group of prima donna actors, who are shooting a Vietnam War movie when their director decides to leave them in the middle of a real war.

The movie has been widely criticized by disability advocacy groups all across the U.S. because it repeatedly uses the word “retard” to refer to one of the film’s main characters, Simple Jack.

But Stiller defends his upcoming comedy and tells MTV News’ website, “It’s sort of edgy territory, but we felt that as long as the focus was on the actors who were trying to do something to be taken seriously that’s going too far or wrong, that was where the humor would come from. [The joke is on] actors reaching for roles in terms of hopefully winning awards.”

Stiller’s co-writer Etan Cohen totally agrees with him and says to MTV News, “some people have taken this as making fun of handicapped people, but we’re really trying to make fun of the actors who use this material as fodder for acclaim.”

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