Watching Robert Downey Jr. in the very first Iron Man film, you’re not just watching an actor producing a definitive portrayal that is impossible to imagine someone else replacing it, you’re actually watching Robert Downey Jr. cementing his legacy as a bankable star with the very first block buster in his entire slate of movies.
But behind all the flawless dialogue deliveries, inimitable movements and the complete embodiment of his characters, there’s a haunting backstory…, of Robert Downey Jr. vs. Robert Downey Jr.
He made his acting debut at the age of five in 1970, but it wasn’t until 1985 that he got a big break as one of the young cast members on Saturday Night Live. The cast’s comedic talents were highly criticized, the show garnered poor ratings and everybody was dropped and replaced. To make matters worse, Rolling Stone gave the following review to the final product ‘Downey fail sums up everything that makes SNL great’.
A few years down the road, Downey was cast in the 1992 film ‘Chaplin’ as the titular character, Charlie Chaplin himself. Chaplin was one of those icons in the world that no one thought could be re-created on film, but here he was, portrayed by someone who didn’t really stood out as the first choice to play him by the studios that wanted either Robin Williams or Billy Crystal.
They even imagined the always lovable Jim Carrey to play Chaplin, but director Richard Attenborough was adamant on casting Downey as perhaps he saw what we now get to see. An actor portraying another actor with such unprecedented believability that Attenborough ended the film with archive footage of Chaplin himself to give you some sort of a tease comparison between Downey and Chaplin. Needless to say, Downey ended up with his very first Academy Award nomination and even though he lost out to Al Pacino that year, he solidified himself as an extravagant force on the screen.
Downey continued to garner prestige with his unusually arresting performances throughout his career, but oddly enough, even after pilling up countless movies and playing numerous memorable characters, he still hadn’t had a real block buster on his resume.
Fast forward 16 years to 2008 and it was finally time for Downey to star in his very first box office shattering multi-million dollar project, Iron Man that proved to be the foundation for The Avengers that became a multi-billion dollar franchise in itself. The whole deal landed Downey topping the Forbes list of the highest paid actors for three consecutive years.
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