Robert Downey Jr: Flying high on superhero career success

There was a time, not too long ago, when many people expected Robert Downey Jr to join that sad band of high-flyers who ended their days face down in the gutter in a Los Angeles back street.

Looking at him today there are no signs of the demons that drove Downey to jail and to rehab as he fought to kick his heroin habit and addiction to alcohol.

What a turnaround there has been. Who would have thought that Downey would defy his critics by stepping 
up to the plate as not one but two iconic movie heroes? 
And who would have 
believed that they would be Sherlock Holmes and Tony Stark, aka Marvel Comics’ Iron Man?

So many talents have burned bright before being snuffed out. Downey almost became one of them. Now, not yet 50, he’s joined the ranks of other latter-day bad boys in that he’s seen the dark side and prefers the light.

Last year he was part of the ensemble that gave us Avengers Assemble – a mighty box office titan that proved (it proof were required) that comic book superheroes were here to stay.

Last week he took centre stage with his co-stars to talk about Iron Man 3, one of a plethora of franchises within a franchise operated by Disney and Marvel.

At 48 he looked elegant, calm and slightly bemused by some fans’ reactions. But better that than experiences from a previous life.

Iron Man 3 casts Downey as perhaps the ultimate superhero – a billionaire in an armoured suit that allows him to fly and make him almost invincible.

It throws into the mix an array of baddies that resemble Yul Brynner’s robotic villain in Westworld and a supremely mean terrorist called the Mandarin who plays to the gallery as he exercises his whim for murder.

“We all figured that after Avengers we couldn’t go for more of a spectacle, so I’m just so pleased, from people who are seeing the movie, that we did this correctly,” he says of Iron Man 3.

“We just wanted to get to the point where kids were having that conversation when they left the theatre – about genetic enhancements and [whether] terrorism is media-driven or whatever.

“I’m merely happy that those arguments are occurring.”

So much is piled into Marvel’s movies that one can excuse Downey’s seriousness. It’s all happened in the last five years. First Iron Man, then Sherlock Holmes. Then one sequel followed by two more. It might not be the career Downey envisaged when he decided to become an actor but no-one can deny his success.

Friends and contemporaries queue up to praise him. Mel Gibson, a loyal friend throughout Downey’s various travails, has stuck with him. Downey has returned the favour during Gibson’s lowest days.

Woody Allen called Downey “a huge talent”. And the people at Disney must be pinching themselves that this once wayward and seemingly suicidal young man has emerged as a winner.

There is a scene in Iron Man 3 in which Downey as the hero meets Sir Ben Kingsley, playing the villain. It is a clash of equally matched talents, a high point in the movie, and a pointer to the kind of performance Kingsley consistently delivers and Downey is capable of.

For director Shane Black it was a chance to see two thoroughbreds racing for the finish line. He calls them “fabulously talented people” who have the ability to make structure seem like improvisation.

“They performed it in such a loose way and wonderful way – just dancing and thinking on their feet,” he recalled.

Strange, then, how Downey’s career has turned out. No-one could have predicted this route for 
him. And maybe he’s 
content.

But the stand-off with Kingsley hints at the real greatness of Downey – a greatness that has rarely been truly captured on film.

Aside from his OTT work as Sherlock Holmes and the gleam and glint of the Iron Man movies and that ilk, Downey has rarely been tested. Movies like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Zodiac have played to his strengths as a character actor.

But where are the roles that set Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro apart in the ’70s? Or someone like Ben Kingsley who, after the explosion that was Gandhi, sought out unusual parts? Downey needs someone to bounce off as evidenced by another comment about Kingsley.

“We didn’t rest on our laurels. We were very flexible and often talking about things. There are other scenes in other parts of the movie 
where we would throw any and every idea that we could at him and he’d bounce it back and they could have been in the movie. It was like the sixth game of the World Series and he was the main pitcher.”

Clearly this is the kind of interplay Downey thrives on. He enjoys the thrill of dexterous verbal combat. It’s surprising that he found it in a superhero movie, but then the life of a film star is anything but normal.

There are those who claim Robert Downey Jr is the pre-eminent actor of his generation – a star to 
rival Marlon Brando at his height, or De Niro and Hoffman.

It may well be true but Downey has yet to prove it. Blockbusters like Iron Man reach an immense global audience but the real glory 
is in the character roles 
often offered in low-budget indies. That’s where the real gold is.

Maybe Downey can shovel away the iron ore to find the flakes that cumulatively will allow his star to shine as brightly as it should.

Iron Man 3 is on general release from today.

Downey Jr – 
A life in film

Robert Downey Jr was born on April 4, 1965 and made his film debut at the age of five in Pound.

It was during the 1980s that he dominated the big screen as part of the Brat Pack, but it was his performance in Chaplin which cemented his status as one of the best actors of his generation.

The role earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, but from then Downey’s was in an out of rehab.

His first post-rehab job was lip-sycing in the vide for Elton John’s single I Want Your Love in 2001 directed by artist Sam Taylor Wood. It was the start of a comeback which would once again see Downey Jr back in the A-list.