In a recent interview with EURWeb, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, had some choice words for Michael Jai White and Black Dynamite. Which is unsurprising when you consider Williamson also turned down a role in the Wayans’ blaxploitation parody/homage I’m Gonna Git You Sucka. What is surprising is finding out that the guy who really paid homage to The Hammer was… Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder?

“He says that they’re payin’ homage to me,” Williamson is quoted as saying. “How can you pay homage to me in a comedy? I don’t do comedy…. My thing is to be the hero, to win the fight, to get the girl at the end of the movie… OK. You go to see a Freddy Williamson movie. Ain’t no singin’, ain’t no dancin’ because I don’t sing. I don’t dance, in public anyway. So my kind of film, call it what you want. I have no idea what the hell ‘black exploitation’ means, but if you want to call it that, fine. But I don’t do comedy and you can’t pay homage to me by doing comedy.”

And then after further discounting Michael Jai White:

“The guy who paid homage to me was a white guy in ‘Tropic Thunder,’” he says. “Robert Downey Jr. He did it in blackface with sideburns, looked just like the Hammer. When they reviewed the film in New York and all other venues they said he did a great interpretation of Fred Williamson. Now, I respect that. That means he knows who I am. He saw me. He respects the way that I talk. He respects the way that I project myself and that’s what he was doing. He was in a comedy, but he wasn’t comic. He was doing the Hammer.”

Hit EURweb for the complete interview