Robert Downey Jr.: the Oscar is the happy ending to a very American story

Robert Downey Jr. he won the Oscar as best supporting actor for his performance in Oppenheimer (as everyone, including his rivals, expected). “I would like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order,” the actor said in his acceptance speech.

For the star of Iron Manhis position as frontrunner was the culmination of a long and emotional personal story, in which he fulfilled the promises he made to himself more than 30 years ago, when he was first nominated for the 1992 film Charlot. But the story goes back even further: Now he'll finally have a bookend to another memory he's cherished for more than four decades.

By the time he was a student at Santa Monica High School in the early 1980s, Downey had already appeared in small parts in independent films father directorbut it was the role of a singing cowboy in one of the musicals in his acting class that made him think that acting professionally might be something he would like to do in life. «I got to do it Oklahoma! at school. She was mine Before win for best supporting actor. I was Will Parker,” he recalled during a recent American Cinematheque Q&A. “I've had a pretty eventful life, so it's amazing that it's stuck with me something as well as my social security number. But I still have that little plastic prize.”

“It's funny what we give importance to,” he added. “I think we all have our own ideas about the things we think are important, and when I see that thing I think, Wow, I've really held on to an object, whatever it was… since 1982, or something.”

Downey Jr.'s victory at the Academy Awards is the happy ending to a three-act story that began with the first nomination in 1993 for the biopic on the silent star Charlot. The second act came after his recovery from a dangerous and very public fall, when he rebuilt his life and career during the rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. At that point, in 2008, it was fueling the rebirth of his career Iron Man, which not only made him a global box office powerhouse, but ushered in a whole new cinematic universe. In the same year, he found himself once again nominated for an Oscar for his ferocious satire Tropic Thunderwhich pokes fun at the kind of arrogant actor who thinks he's impervious to everything.

Ten years later, the 58-year-old Downey has a healthier, wiser and more stable outlook on life, which he never fails to underline with a joke about his wilder past. After spending years making comic book and comedy films that capitalized on his remarkable natural charisma, he once again found himself yearning for another transformative role as Charlotwho from supporting roles and snooty characters in children's films and romantic comedies has elevated him to the ranks of the most talented actors of his generation.

The actor attributes to Christopher Nolandirector and screenwriter of Oppenheimercredited with helping him realize the potential that was evident even at the time of his first nomination for Charlot. “At one point in my life and career he came to me and said, 'Let's flip the script and do something outside of your comfort zone. Let's imagine we can do it well,'” Downey said.

Now Downey can take an example from his nemesis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the collector of cosmic gems Thanos: «I am inescapable». At the risk of jinxing it, there is no greater certainty than Downey on Sunday.

Downey surprised audiences (and apparently himself) by taking on the role of the admiral Lewis Strauss, a longtime Washington D.C. official who has served at many levels of government, including the board of directors of the Atomic Energy Commission. In the film, Strauss becomes the political nemesis of the brilliant but troubled physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer played by Cillian Murphy. To film his character's progressive collapse at the end of the film, Downey recalled that Nolan asked him to repeat every single shot several times to capture the cracking of this hardened bureaucrat's ego.

«I thought: “Okay, now I'm getting tired. In my opinion it was good,'” Downey said. «And he says: “Maybe yes, or maybe no, but… No, I know you can still give something else”». Downey, exasperated, said his initial response was, “No, I can't! And not I want!».

“It was one of those times where he said, 'I'm sorry, but we haven't come this far for me to let you go,'” Downey continued. «It was an important moment when I realized that I had to move forward… Whatever yardstick we measure our laziness by, it's there somewhere, and it's that the thing you have to find and erase to grow.”

His experience in Charlot was similar to the pressures faced by her co-star Murphy in Oppenheimer: Supporting almost every scene in a sprawling historical drama populated by a huge cast. But even in comparing the two performances, Downey was self-deprecating. “I didn't have the advantage of being a mature man, like you were,” he told Murphy during a dual interview. «So I wasn't able to carry Really what you brought.”

Downey is now living up to another kind of promise he made all those years ago. In a January 1993 interview with veteran Associated Press journalist Bob Thomas, Downey admitted that he had struggled for years with drug And the alcohol. In archive footage from the recent Netflix documentary Mr.the actor's late father, director Robert Downey Sr., expressed his regret for introducing the boy to the use of mind-altering substances when he was young.

«I was out of control. It's a metaphor for trying to get somewhere different, for not feeling comfortable in your own skin,” Downey said at 28 in that 1993 interview. He remembered the exhilaration of staying clean at the premiere of Charlot. “God, it was wonderful to live that night without needing to drink,” Downey said. “And also remember the address of the place I was going to next.”

He has never made any secret of why he has struggled to stay sober. «Time, mistakes, the loss of friends. Self respect. Missing certain moments. Missing the holidays. The turkey is on the table and I am under the table. No thank you. I took some preventative measures,” Downey said.

At that point he started making promises. “I don't test God anymore,” Downey continued. “He's here, and he's a lot bigger than me, and I have short arms.”

It wasn't a promise he could keep. At least not then. He lost the Oscar for best actor to Al Pacino For Scent of a Woman and, as the years passed, his monstrous addictions continued to undermine his prodigious talent. In the early 2000s, drugs and alcohol kept him away from the red carpet and, for a short time, landed him in prison. Then came a new, hard-fought rise. Downey redeemed himself, got married (to the producer Susan Downeymet when they worked together on the horror film Gothika of 2003). In his acceptance speech, Downey said of his wife: “When she found me I was a snarling foundling and she brought me back to life with love.”

From here, he gradually settled back into his life as an actor, although many producers, including Nolan, were hesitant to work with him due to his troubled reputation. For example, Downey was considered for the role of the villain Scarecrow in Batman Begins 2005, which Nolan ultimately handed over to Murphy. «He said to me: “I just wanted to meet you. I was going to hire you, but the idea of ​​hiring you scared me a little.” And I said, 'Okay,'” Downey recalled. Even Marvel bosses were reluctant to let the director Jon Favreau and the manufacturer Kevin Feige they cast him in Iron Man. “Believe me, this wasn't some isolated executive,” the actor said of the unyielding objections.

He ended up getting the part anyway, thanks to an audition that showcased his undeniable bravado and his savoir faire as Tony Stark. Box office success had made him a success, but it was his new work ethic and personal dedication that made him reliable. Other roles followed, including the one that would earn him his second Oscar nomination by discrediting his own profession in the vulgar, shocking and hilarious Tropic Thunder of 2008.

Playing acclaimed actor Kirk Lazarus, the kind of multiple Oscar nominee Downey now truly is, he mercilessly mocked the conceit that too often permeates his industry. Lazarus seriously believes he can transform himself into a black soldier in a Vietnam War drama. Offensive? No doubt. Breathtaking. But the derision was directed at (as Downey described him) “an actor apparently brilliant he's an idiot.”

“We mock and satirize these things because we can laugh them apart, demonstrating how pointless, futile, and comically stupid these tropes are, right?” Downey said. «This is, obviously, the energy and the spirit with which Ben Stiller He has made Tropic Thunder».

Downey didn't win for Tropic Thunder. The supporting actor award went to the late Heath Ledger for his role as the Joker in The dark Knight by Nolan. When he won the directing award at this year's Golden Globes, the director recalled the encouragement he received from Downey at the time, as he faced the loss of Ledger, who had succumbed to the same frailties of addiction that had long plagued him. the same star as Iron Man.

«The only time I have stood on this stage before was to accept one of these awards on behalf of our dear friend Heath Ledger. It was complicated and challenging for me, and as I spoke I looked up and Robert Downey Jr. met my gaze and gave me a look of love and support. The same look he's giving me right now,” Nolan told the Golden Globe audience. “It is the same love and support that he has shown to so many people in our community over so many years.”

Downey has never shied away from speaking honestly about his ups and downs, although he doesn't tolerate them being held in his face. His candor has been an inspiration to those struggling with the same issues, and his resilience and success are an uplifting alternative to similar stories that ended horribly for others. He has become the patron saint of second chances for artists like himself who have made grave mistakes or fallen from grace, and calls for indulgence even when it puts him under attack. After all, he had once benefited from it too.

In addition to his intense and moving performance in OppenheimerDowney's personal journey and his status as an unremittingly supportive colleague in the entertainment industry have made him the surest of certainties this awards season.

In Charlot, Downey brought the silent film star's story to an emotional crescendo in a scene set at the 1972 Oscar ceremony, just days before Chaplin's 73rd birthday, when he was celebrated by his Hollywood peers and moviegoers around the world. world. The same feeling brought Downey to the same stage, holding up his golden trophy at the same ceremony a lifetime later.