14 DAY TRIAL // Recent years have marked one of the most spectacular comebacks in the movie industry: that of Robert Downey Jr., who won over audiences and critics again, after a terrible drug addiction ran his career into the ground. The latest Esquire issue has him talking precisely of that.
After a series of roles that landed him among critics' favorites, Downey fell into drugs as a way to deal with the pressure of fame.
His was one of the most mediated and scandalous addictions to that date, but he's now alive and well, willing to talk about the experience and how he managed to rise from the ashes.
Speaking with the magazine to promote his role as Iron Man in the upcoming “The Avengers,” the star says he knew from the moment he auditioned for the role years ago that he'd been born to play the character.
It was fate, he believes.
“Yeah, I think Iron Man wound up being the first time I screen-tested since Chaplin. As far as I was concerned, it was destiny. Now, I can’t tell you how many people are sitting around with the cold, hard evidence that it wasn’t,” the actor says.
“I just wasn’t going to let lack of perseverance, lack of preparation, or lack of prayer get in the way. I just went crazy – in a good way. And suddenly it occurred to me, Oh my God, Stan Lee might not know this, but everything he created has all been leading to this moment. It’s me,” Robert continues.
“Then I thought, Hold on a second, dude, is this just some sort of neurotic personality meltdown happening here? And then I thought, Nah, that feels different,” he adds.
As it turns out, he was precisely the man producers were looking to bring Tony Stark / Iron Man to life on the big screen, thus laying the grounds for one of the biggest film franchises of the moment, and not just from Marvel.
Even though Robert himself can boast of a spectacular comeback, he can't possibly imagine what it'd be like if he had to start from scratch today, he reveals in the same interview.
“Those were the challenges of our day. There’s a big, big, big infusion of truly, seriously, gifted, talented people, and everyone went however and wherever they were supposed to go,” he says of the '80s.
“Nowadays I wonder what it’s like to enter the playing field. I mean, what does approval even mean when you can have a good night on a talent show and get a table everywhere for five years?” Downey adds.
Here is his full interview – it's a must-read, especially if you're a fan.