One Actor Not Laughing at ‘Tower Heist’ Trailer
ABC News David Blaustein reports:
There is plenty to laugh at in the trailer for the movie “Tower Heist,” but actor Greg Grunberg finds nothing funny about one particular exchange between Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller.
In the scene, Murphy refers to Stiller as “little seizure boy,” not once but twice. It is Murphy’s character poking fun at Stiller’s character for a childhood ailment but for anyone who suffers from Epilepsy or is prone to seizures it is no laughing matter.
Grunberg’s 15-year-old son Jake has epilepsy. In fact, Grungberg has an organization devoted to raising awareness about epilepsy called TALKABOUTIT.ORG, so, when he saw the trailer for “Tower Heist,” the “Heroes,” star was shocked and he let his 1.4-million Twitter followers know when he tweeted, “TERRIBLY OFFENSIVE TRAILER for #TowerHeist – Making fun @ people w/ seizures is NOT FUNNY & WRONG! “Seizure Boy!” REALLY? #Boycott RT”
“The movie is filled with all of my favorite actors,” Grunberg tells ABC News Radio, “It’s a funny concept for a movie,” but he’s disappointed with a joke he calls “irresponsible, ignorant and not funny.”
When discussing Universal Grunberg says, “I love that company,” but he would like an apology.
“Just for them to reach out to the Epilepsy community and say, ‘we mean no personal harm to anybody,’ which of course they don’t,” continuing, “They probably just don’t even realize the people they are offending and how this could possibly offend people.”
He’s also perplexed at how they could’ve included the joke in the movie’s marketing strategy.
“Let’s be honest, these are the top comedy writers in the world, top comedy performers in the world — this is not the best that they can do. Let’s try to be a little more responsible.”