Ten times he starred on the big screen in the role of the genius industrialist and billionaire Tony Stark, who becomes Iron Man in an armor suit made of a powerful metal known as vibranium.
This journey began with the first film in 2008, which launched the Marvel Comics film corporation, dictated a new economic agenda in Hollywood for global blockbusters, and ended with the swan song of the revolutionary series with 2019's Avengers: Endgame, which was the second highest grossing film in history and brought in "only" 2.8 billion dollars.
At the head of this journey, which led the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was Robert Downey Jr.
In the last decade, he was included in the ranking of the most profitable actors according to "Forbes" magazine with a net worth estimated at 300 million dollars, was chosen as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by "Time" magazine and will be remembered as one of the most impressive comeback stories that Hollywood has known.
But despite all these personal achievements, the most stormy period he testifies to began when he decided in recent years to shoot a documentary about his father, the director of the Fringe films Robert Downey Sr., in what became the personal project of his life.
"These were the craziest days ever, precisely because we focused on the film, with all the madness that prevailed in the world at the time, it was perfect," declared Downey Jr. at the end of the premiere at the New York Film Festival a few weeks ago.
They launched the project before the outbreak of the Corona and he continued to take pictures between the closures.
"And then, at the very last moment, my father was already literally on his deathbed. There were all kinds of creative ideas on how to summarize the story in the right way for the viewers. I believe that everything just worked out in a logical way. There were many challenges, but in general - what was not challenging in the last years For all of us?"
Downey Sr. passed away at his home in New York in July 2021, less than two weeks before his 85th birthday, as a result of complications from the Parkinson's disease he faced in his last years.
"My father's attitude was always that if the situation becomes tragic, then at least there will be laughs along the way. Don't let it seep in. And instead of crying, it's better to throw in another joke," said Downey Jr.
"At a certain point during the filming, I also joked with him that it is still not clear how the film is supposed to end and that he will warn us when he knows that the end is near, and he simply replied 'Fuck you! I'll go when I'm ready to go!'
how it started?
"A few years ago, my father suggested that we make a documentary about the actor George Hamilton and his son Ashley, and we even had a few days of filming. But then my father watched the first footage and said it was garbage. Then he threw at me that we might follow another father-son relationship . I realized he was talking about us and I thought he was fucking crazy. In the end, we were probably destined to join each other and end the project with this crazy gesture."
Also meetings with a psychologist
"Robert Downey Sr.", which was praised by critics and is now available for viewing on Netflix, is a black-and-white documentary, consisting of family documents and providing a rare glimpse into the home of the huge movie star, with his wife and children, conversations with his father in physical meetings and through video mediation, and even meetings with the psychologist.
The creative process is also documented.
Downey, the father and the son, lead each part of the film they are shooting, while discussing with each other with humor what the film must include and recalling the father's outstanding films.
The film was directed by Chris Smith, whose productions include a previous Netflix hit, Tiger King.
Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in "Iron Man", photo: PR
"My father decided that we would split into two teams, each one would film the part of the film that he saw fit. I didn't understand what was going on on his side. It was like some kind of art film and I didn't know what to do with it. In the end we had to believe in each other and let all this madness go to do his own thing," Downey Jr. explains.
"Fortunately, the film had one director, because otherwise it really would have been crazy. I remember that the director couldn't believe that we filmed my Zoom meeting with my psychologist. It was at a stage where it wasn't really clear where we were going. They could just as well have filmed me in the bathroom. But I guarantee that it was Not a film like that (laughs). We knew we had to be real and not think about what public relations would say when the time came to promote the film. We worked the other way around - we started from the starting point of everything that should not be done, and from there the film came out."
And is it really a family movie?
"Throughout the film there are touches of the films that my father made. This is actually the soundtrack of my life, which accompanies how I grew up to this day. There are quotes that I memorize from him even today. In fact, this project seals my father's life, until at some point he tells the photographer that he should not come More because everything is already filmed and finished. The subtext resonates."
The film is a family project, but also a business one.
This is the first documentary project of the "Team Downey" production company founded by Downey Jr. and his wife Susan in 2010, which has signed feature films such as "The Judge" or "Doolittle" in which he starred.
The business initiative is also a characteristic of the life of the great star, very far from the wild revelry years that characterized the beginning of his career in the industry.
"I believe that a high work ethic keeps you away from getting into trouble, because then it is the most important thing in your life and becomes your default every day," he says.
"From time to time I'll see all sorts of people from the industry who have pretty much disappeared and you wonder what happened to them. Usually the answer is that they just weren't willing to work hard enough to conquer the goals you expected them to. I know I'll always do my best. If for example I hold a production development contract for five years, I will work to realize it and the money invested in the deal will not just be wasted. This is certainly true when it comes to my wife's and my production company. The incentive to produce projects almost stimulates us sexually as a couple. Like the smell of a fresh flower that puts us in the right atmosphere."
And the smell of money?
"Money is important to a person until the moment you have it. I know that when I have a sum of money, I want to channel it as I please, for the benefit of the things I want to promote, even if it did not come directly from me. I run between luxury hotels from meeting to meeting as a producer and still I remember very well the years when I ran in musty hotels in rooms the size of a table, with a view of a dark alley - so I can appreciate where I have come to. Susan and I have a comfortable and pleasant life, but our house is not huge. Sometimes I wonder what the lives of all these billionaires are like. In my eyes They are portrayed as narcissistic, paranoid and not really fun. I stick to values, I try to be a good husband, a good father. Even a good interviewer."
In 2003, Downey Jr. met the American-Jewish producer Susan Levine, deputy director of Joel Silver's production company, during the filming of the movie "Gothica".
The two struck up a secret romance, despite her fears that her position would be damaged.
They were married in August 2005 in a Jewish ceremony.
Their son, Axton Elias, was born in 2012, and their daughter, Avery Roel, in 2014.
You work together. Isn't that too hard?
"I am lucky to work alongside my wife. She is a great person and my best friend, she is also a great mother to our children and never ceases to amaze me with the amount of patience she has for every person. It all stems from the education she received at home, with the values they instilled in her, and along the way she stuck me in them. It's not that we don't get into arguments and make the people around us feel uncomfortable. But it's never against each other, but disagreements about a certain project or how to execute a certain scene. We both have a lot of passion for the artistic process, and it helps me in my work that I'm with such a woman Beautiful and impressive."
How is the division of labor between you?
"There's no doubt that I don't reach her ankles in her ability to stand in front of the children, but we are aware of the abilities of each of us - I excel at showers and all the arrangements before they go to bed, I have patience for that. But the secret is consistency. I grew up differently, in a hippie atmosphere where every One concentrated on what he wanted to do, without investing a lot in the children who will grow up and flourish on their own."
And yet, you finally followed in your father's footsteps, to the cinema.
"He inspired me from childhood to dare artistically. He was a very direct person and full of wit, which always characterized our home. We both had an endless ability to make each other laugh in good times and bad. This is what has kept our relationship going all these years. Sometimes I catch I myself behave like him, but sometimes these are things I took from my mother. I am very satisfied with my family life today. I do not live with regrets and think about how I could have behaved differently. If there is one thing for sure, it is that you will never regret spending too much time with my son Your family. This was taught to me by Sir Richard Attenborough, who directed me 30 years ago in a film about Charlie Chaplin. I met him for the last time a few months before his death, when I am in a completely different place from those days - as a family man who makes sure to be there in all my days The birth and the important events. And I remember that after that meeting with Attenborough I felt the need to pick up the phone to my father and simply tell him that I love him."
The movie poster.
Praised by critics (and available on Netflix), photo: Public Relations
Childhood in a permissive bohemian life
Robert Downey Jr. was born in April 1965 and from a young age was drawn to the permissive bohemian life of his father and mother, the actress Elsie Ann Ford, who divorced when he was 10. At the age of 5, he participated in his first film, "Corn", directed by his father, as a child who arrives at a corral of pets, which Played by real actors.
Downey Sr. was an avant-garde director who won acclaim for his 1969 film Putney Swope.
At its center was the character of a black man who is mistakenly appointed to run an advertising company in Manhattan and replaces all its employees with members of the black community.
This new socio-cinematic statement was chosen for preservation in the official American film archive.
The father once said that he let his son Robert smoke marijuana for the first time when he was only 6 years old, and regretted it very much.
While his father continued an absurd and anti-establishment artistic line with eccentric, underground and low-budget works, the son began his acting career in Off-Broadway plays and even participated for a season in "Saturday Night Live" in the mid-1980s, when the sketch show was going through an identity crisis. Before the original creator Lauren Michaels returned to her.
Together with his best friend and roommate Kiefer Sutherland and his partner in those years, Sarah Jessica Parker, they began making their way in Hollywood as appendages to the "Brat Pack" group of young actors such as Rob Lowe, Charlie Sheen, Molly Ringwald and Demi Moore.
After a series of youth dramas, he got his big professional breakthrough thanks to the biographical film "Chaplin", for which he was nominated for an Oscar in 1992.
But from the 1990s, Downey Jr. had a dubious reputation because of his addictions to drugs and alcohol, failed hospitalizations in rehab centers and frequent arrests and actual prison sentences of almost a year in a correctional and rehab center.
Only at the beginning of the 2000s did it begin to straighten out.
He later revealed in interviews that he was exposed to drugs from childhood by his father, who himself was an addict.
This shared fate was at the root of their shaky relationship at certain times.
In their joint film, reconciliation with the demons that haunted both of them and many insights are evident."
What's really the story with your names?
"The only reason my name is Robert Downey Jr. is that my father was already a registered member of the Actors Guild, and according to its rules there should be no duplication of names. That's why I registered as Junior, and that's the professional name that stuck with me all these years," he explains.
"At home I was just Robert or Bob. But when I started my acting career I publicly became Junior, my father was Senior and that's how I called him. Once these titles, and in general long names, had much more justification. Besides, our last name is not Downey at all but Elias. My father changed him in his youth to his stepfather's name, when he enlisted in the American army and did not want them to find out that he had not yet turned 18. He himself was Robert Elias Jr., his father's name continues, the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania."
do you feel like junior
"As much as I try to be a person aware of himself and his surroundings, I can't testify that being his junior made me want his approval. I suppose that was true at certain stages in life, but after the age of 50 no longer. On the other hand, I'm still not a developed person Completely".
How does your stardom affect your children?
"What child even cares what his father does? Let's be serious, maybe in 30-40 years he will look back, connect to some cloud with 3D content and watch a movie I once made. He is currently 10 years old and mainly plays games, bullying his 10-year-old sister 8 and figure out how to sneak more candy without the parents noticing. These are the main things in his life. Even during the 'Avengers' period, he was mostly excited by the toys of the other characters like Captain America and Nick Fury who was the boss. He much more enjoys watching the 'Guardians of the Galaxy', and of course he doesn't let The respect that 'Iron Man' deserves, to my dismay. At home, with the children and my wife who doesn't sleep at night even when the cat isn't feeling well, I'm just a fifth wheel."
Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin in "Chaplin", photo: Public Relations
You have conquered every possible peak in Hollywood. Where else do you dream of going?
"Assuming we're only talking about the borders of the Earth? Because I don't really see myself as the first famous person to walk on the moon or shoot a movie somewhere else in the galaxy, although that would probably come with a nice financial incentive. But seriously, I'd like to follow in the footsteps of Robert Redford who founded the independent film festival 'Sundance', and establish an incubator for young filmmakers. You will know where the entertainment industry will go in the coming years and what will happen to me. I want to remain part of the general conversation, whether more or less relevant."
dcaspi@goldenglobes.org
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