“I was young and crazy”: Robert Downey Jr. Claims He’s Lucky He Didn’t Win an Oscar for His Best Performance in a Movie That Actually Wanted Tom Cruise
It has been quite busy for Robert Downey Jr., who is drowning in awards and nominations this season following his stupendous performance in Oppenheimer. He breathed life into the character of U.S. Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss in such a magnificent manner that he has been snatching awards left and right, be it at the Golden Globes or the Critics’ Choice Award. He also received nominations from the prestigious BAFTA Film Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards and he was recently named the frontrunner at the Oscars.
Robert Downey Jr. revealed in an interview that he is in much better shape to receive an Oscar right now than he was at the time of his first nomination for Chaplin.
Robert Downey Jr. Believes Getting The Oscar For Chaplin Would Have Been The Worst Thing For His Career
Robert Downey Jr. is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood now but there was a time when his career was uncertain due to his serious substance abuse problems. He had a big run-in with the law just after his success with Chaplin, where he was found in possession of heroin, cocaine, and an unloaded gun. He luckily escaped jail with three years of probation.
However, the next time, he was not as lucky, as he failed to appear in a court-mandated drug test and was jailed for nearly four months. He again earned jail time for nearly three years for failing to appear in another court-ordered drug test. He served 15 months, only to be arrested again for drug possession four months later.
In an interview with The View, Downey Jr. addressed why getting an Oscar for Chaplin would have been the worst thing in his career at that point.
“I was young and crazy. It would have put me under the impression that I was on the right track.”
Throughout the years, Downey Jr. has spoken up about his struggle with drug abuse and his journey to sobriety. He opened up in 1999, calling his prison time “the worst thing that happened to me.” He also opened up to the Armchair Expert podcast, saying that being sent to prison was like,
“Being sent to a distant planet where there is no way home until the planets align.”
Robert Downey Jr.’s history almost came between his most celebrated role as Iron Man in the MCU, as Marvel was reluctant to take a chance on an actor with drug issues. Even though he was former Marvel Studios’ president David Maisel’s top pick, Maisel admitted later on to The New Yorker that,
“My board thought I was crazy to put the future of the company in the hands of an addict.”
Robert Downey Jr. lost the 1993 Oscar for Chaplin to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. His second nomination in 2009 was for Tropic Thunder, which he ended up losing to the late Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight. Now he is all set to try out the proverb “third time is the charm” with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which landed him a plethora of nominations and awards, including a nod from the Academy.
Robert Downey Jr. Was Not The First Choice Of Richard Attenborough To Play The Role Of Chaplin
Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin had many criticisms, but one place every critic unanimously praised the movie was the astounding acting prowess that Robert Downey Jr. showed off. However, even Downey Jr.’s terrific performance could not save the movie from its own demons, which were formulaic storytelling and a subpar screenplay. It is almost impossible to think now that Attenborough once humiliated Robert Downey Jr. because he was not his first choice to play the titular role.
While appearing in David Letterman’s Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction (via. Independent), Robert Downey Jr. recounted a humiliating ordeal that he had to go through for the movie Chaplin. According to him, Attenborough was pretty bummed to not have Tom Cruise as the protagonist and he did not try to hide his feelings from RDJ.
“The first time I met Dicky, he held up a picture of Tom Cruise to me and said, ‘Now isn’t that remarkable resemblance? Wouldn’t it be amazing if Tom Cruise [played him]? … Was I called in for a humility session? I don’t know what was going on then. I s*** you not, he held a picture of Tom Cruise and said, ‘That’s why he should play Chaplin.’ I was like, ‘Probably, but he passed, so now what?’”
Also Read: Robert Downey Jr Has One Regret From Playing Iron Man in First Avengers Movie
When David Letterman attested to what the audience was thinking and said how intimidating it must have been for him, Robert Downey Jr. said,
“I think actors like other artists are insecure to begin with and you’ve got Richard Attenborough saying, ‘It’s too damn bad we couldn’t get Tommy.’”
Only Attenborough was not against Downey Jr. at that time. The studio also wanted to go with the likes of Robin Williams or Billy Crystal, giving him a tough time holding on to the project. However, even after everything, it was Downey Jr. who got the role and despite the colossal failure of the movie, he shined like a true star.
Chaplin is available to stream on Paramount+.
