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[ los angeles 2008 preview issue]

 [ master of the house ]

by Fred Topel
Photos by Zade Rosenthal
Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

PAGE. 22 2008 Preview Issue

t
here are few actors as charismatic in
their self-destructive ways as Robert
Downey Jr. His trademark wound-up,
dicey, real and raw personality has
made him a most beloved Hollywood
lead man today, despite his ongoing
drug-addiction battles. Five years
ago, Downey was the go-to punch line in any
late-night joke about celebrity rehab. There was
a point when the actor couldn’t even get insured
for major film productions. But to everyone’s
great relief, these days he’s shaking things up on
solid ground.
Currently, the clean and insured 43-year-old is
still proving his incomparable talents on movie
sets as the star of this month’s Iron Man. Downey
is an unusual casting choice for Tony Stark – the
billionaire weapons magnate who becomes Iron
Man and stays alive with a chest plate that keeps
his heart beating. Marvel launches the feature
film with plenty of pyrotechnics to please the
eye, as well as a flying metal hero that can blast
any villain. The production harkens back to the
days of actors honing their crafts, and studios, in
this case Marvel Productions, in charge of their
own work.
“I remember the original Superman and Brando
was in it,” Downey says. “I thought, wow, these
things must be getting legit! I was already, I guess,
fairly opinionated when I was seven.”
Acclaimed for his work in prestige films like
Chaplin and intense character dramas like Less
Than Zero, Downey proves that quirky, high-
caliber actors make comic book films stand out.
“All my friends are doing it,” jokes Downey. “With
my buddies, when you want to do stuff, they say,
‘You’re doing what, man? Shaggy Dog?’ No one’s
given me any guff about Iron Man.”
The actor grabbed hold of his character with his
typical gusto and sharpened Tony Stark with his
Downey edge. Near the end of an exhausting
day on the set of Iron Man, director Jon Favreau
needed Downey to walk through the Stark home
and check his messages. Even in a brief shot to
simply forward the plot, Downey had new lines
he wanted to try; different reactions to various
well-wishers leaving voicemails. This was the
way it went throughout the entire production.
“I come in every day and say, ‘I’ve seen this in a
movie before. No offense, but if we do [it this
way], I haven’t seen that,’” explains Downey.
“Some of my [ideas] are so far out they go, ‘Will
you just go put on your chest piece?’ I feel the
onus and the responsibility to not venture into
this genre without an understanding that just
because it happens to have this two-dimensional
aspect to it in its origins, doesn’t mean that it
doesn’t go deep and it shouldn’t be an art form. I
think audiences are continually underestimated.
At the same time, I can go see a pretty crappy
movie and love it, if it’s got a couple of things
that work. I’m like a soccer coach with kids that
probably shouldn’t be playing soccer.”
Back on the set, Favreau looked tired as he
entered to discuss the scene with Downey. The
Stark mansion was paved with brown “marble”
that squeaked as Downey walked across it. The
“marble” was actually just rubber, hence the
squeaking. Later, Favreau said he appreciates the
“collaboration,” as he called it.
“I think there’s something incredible to be
discovered in the moment, especially when
you have actors like Robert who understand it
and have been around and see themselves as
shepherds of their roles,” said Favreau. “He knows
more about their character than the filmmaker
does, because that’s the kind of actor I hired.”
The two would often have discussions that
continued late into the night, or they’d show up
early on the set and lock themselves in the trailer
to talk about their ideas for the film.
“In casting Robert, you have a much different
version of this movie than you would if you
have somebody else younger, less funny, less
spontaneous, less charismatic,” says Favreau.
“With him as Tony Stark, we knew we could
hit the humor hard. We knew we could test
the boundaries of likeability because he’s
so charming that you could really get to the
personality Tony Stark has in the books.”
Some of Downey’s ideas actually required
a complete re-haul of the set. In one scene,
Stark gives a press conference to a room full of
reporters. Downey wanted the reporters to sit
down, when lights were set up for everyone at
standing height.
“I’m not coming in going, ‘This is all wrong!
Relight!’” explains Downey. “But I will come in and
say, ‘Given the time we have, we can probably
get this many shots.’ Jon’s been very flexible and
very fun.”
Changing a film set seems like a relatively
wholesome instinct for someone with more
unruly habits, such as violating probations and
frequently regressing into drug addiction. Even
during his younger, more careless days, Downey
was able to channel his wild energies into artistic
pursuits.
“I remember the days of Less than Zero or Chaplin
where I would throw myself into this tizzy of
prep for 16 hours,” Downey recalls. “The same
makeup gal doing this did Less Than Zero, and
she was blowing menthol in my eyes, putting
latex on my lips… I was doing push-ups before I’m like a soccer coach with
the scenes and my heart was racing forever.”
kids that probably shouldn’t be
Real life for Downey has been the stuff of past playing soccer.
Hollywood movies: An emerging talent in the
‘80s, quickly swept up in the fast lifestyle of drugs,
building credibility only to relapse several times.
Back in 2003, he actually thought he’d given his
last interview on rehab. His team of publicists
said that from then on, he could just claim he’s
“already covered it.” Five years later, now acting
the part of a comic book character who has
turned to the bottle, he taunts me when I try to
sugarcoat the question he’s learned to expect.
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 [ master of the house ] continued article

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PAGE. 25 2008 Preview Issue
 [ master of the house]
“Just bring it, dude.”
Okay, Robert, since you’ve been through addiction problems,
could you relate more to Tony Stark?
“I think when someone has had a fundamental change and
they’re not just trying to backpedal; by the time you’ve seen
the light; by the time you get out of Dodge and start doing the
right thing, you really don’t relate to the person that historically
people still say [you are],” Downey says.
“It’s always kind of an inside game, and I forget that occasionally,
but they keep writing the shit,” Downey continues. “It’s that
thing, like life is 85% maintenance, and you realize at
the end of your day that you spent most of the day just
making sure that other people’s energy and all your own
mindtalk wasn’t ruining it. Like the day plans to be good,
and then you come in like CRASH CRASH CRASH trying to
VROOM VROOM VROOM.”
Interviewing Downey is always fun because he’ll go off on
tangents more interesting than the original question anyway.
This topic somehow veers off to people with worse reputations
than Downey.
“It’s like the guy who says, ‘If you Google me, all you’re ever
going to see is that I was accused of raping those two kids on
a boat,’ or whatever,” he says. “It’s like, why am I Googling you
anyway? That’s a really nice headspace.”
Wait a minute. This isn’t an attempt to evade the real question,
is it?
PAGE. 26 2008 Preview Issue
No, Downey eventually gets to the real story.
“Well, they say the bigger the setback, the bigger the comeback.
I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that people take that to
heart,” Downey says. “It’s kind of one of those agnostic journeys.
I don’t want to be a Joseph Campbell chapter, but most
everyone’s life is one mythology or another. I guess that’s why
it’s there, to let you know those stories mean something. I took
some hits mostly in my own making, but everyone transforms.
Some of it’s just a function of age. I’m not in my twenties. I’m
not in my thirties.”
They say the bigger the setback, the
bigger the comeback. I wouldn’t
necessarily recommend that people
take that to heart.
Even during the dark times, Downey still cared about his craft.
It just took some growing up to teach him that he couldn’t have
it both ways. He couldn’t be an Oscar-nominated actor and get
arrested for possession of narcotics.
“It never occurred to me, particularly after I did Chaplin, that
there was this 18-month window where I wasn’t supposed to
smoke bowls and watch the History Channel,” Downey says. “I
was supposed to plan the next big thing. I guess it was that
thing, too, of the narcissism of wanting to act like it wasn’t that
important to me and I didn’t care, and also having the tendency
continued article
to like to check out and anesthetize myself. Between the two of
those, it’s like you’re not firing on all cylinders and it’s not that
kind of party. It’s not a rat race, it’s a road rally for sure.”
Working his way back into Hollywood’s good graces was
a gradual process. Downey had to successfully complete
independent films like Two Girls and a Guy, and later, The Singing
Detective, to prove he wasn’t an insurance risk. For a while, the
actor’s life was choppy, and Hollywood always weighs its risks
against the potential rewards of hiring an actor.
“I just think there’s an understanding,” Downey says. “It’s like
if you want a French-speaking actor who you think is right
to do your film, you understand that there will be certain
communicative necessities, or whatever. It’s really just an
equation. I can think of two people offhand who it never got
as public as it was with me, and after a certain amount of
time, [proved] the most stable people are the people who are
committedly not unpredictable anymore.”
New Hollywood has shown not only its forgiveness in hiring
Downey for a big budget franchise, but its faith, signing him
to two sequels. This could see Downey playing Iron Man until
another generation of Hollywood takes over.
“We wrapped this and I’m on to the next thing,” Downey says.
“I’m in great shape and I have tons of energy and I have more
gratitude than I can even bear to express. You could say that’s
because I have something to weigh it against, or you could say
it’s because I’m a grateful guy nowadays.”
And for that, we’re all thankful.
PAGE. 27 2008 Preview Issue