Robert Downey Jr. from drugs to the Marvel world
Son of director and screenwriter Robert Downey and singer and actress Elsie Ford, Robert Downey Jr. He was born on April 4, 1965 in New York (United States).
From a very young age, he followed in the footsteps of his father in the world of cinema, debuting at age 5 in one of the films (Pound) directed by his father.
At the age of 6, he first tried drugs under the influence of his father.
Which, during his youth, led him to have all kinds of legal, professional and family problems due to his addiction to drugs and alcohol.
At the age of 10, the little boy already showed great potential, so his parents decided to send him to England to study classical ballet and acting so that he could improve his body expression and his image on camera.
Upon returning to the United States in 1977, he devoted himself entirely to studying acting at the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center.
Following the separation of his parents, Downey Jr. decided to go with his father to California. There he continued his studies at Santa Monica High School and began to try cocaine in the company of his father.
"When my father and I used drugs together, it was as if he tried to express his love for me in the only way he knew how," the actor said years later.
Performances by Downey Jr.
In 1982, he dropped out of school to seek new opportunities in the acting world and fully focus on developing his career.
Over the next several years, he was involved in three films: "Baby It's You," "Weird Science," and "Firstborn."
In 1985, he was part of the show program "Saturday Night Live", the producers hired him with the aim of attracting a fresher and more youthful audience;
However, the series experienced the worst viewership ratings in its history and received negative reviews of his work from Rolling Stone magazine, for which he was later fired from the set.
Despite his failure on the show, he managed to participate in productions such as "The Untold History" and "Back To School."
In 1987, he landed his first starring role in "The Pick-Up Artist," something that had taken him a lot of work to achieve.
After that first leading role, his career began to grow, the roles in which he acted were increasingly important.
Between 1989 and 1991, he was part of films like "The sky was wrong", "Soapdish" and "Air America".
In these productions he met those who would become his most important friends: Dennis Quaid, Sean Penn and Mel Gibson.
In 1992, he managed to get his second lead of him playing Charles Chaplin in his biopic; A role for which he worked quite hard, as he had to learn to play the violin and play tennis, things that he was not very good at at first.
Fortunately, the film was a complete success, and the excellent performance of Downey Jr. allowed him to be nominated for the three most important awards for the first time:
- The Oscars
- Grammy
- BAFTA
Finally staying with the BAFTA award in the category of "Best Actor".
Around that time, he met actress Deborah Falconer, whom he would marry and have his first child: Indio Downey.
Problems of the past
When he worked, he used to take drugs, creating conflicts and a tense atmosphere on the set of recordings, even going hungover or simply not showing up for work.
In April 1996 he was arrested in Los Angeles for driving naked, under the influence of drugs and with a 357 Magnum caliber weapon.
A month later he was granted probation, but he was arrested again for breaking into the private property of one of his neighbors while under the influence of narcotics in which he was found disoriented and confused.
From this stage he himself highlights a phrase: "It's like having a gun in your mouth and your finger on the trigger, you know that at any moment it is going to shoot but you like the taste of metal."
After this, he was granted probation for three years with the commitment to undergo regular tests to rule out the presence of hallucinogenic substances in his body.
A missed opportunity
As he left it, he saw how the doors of ephemeral fame were closing in his face, that they noticed in Robert a former inmate with too many personal problems.
And then someone reached out to him in the year 2000: in the Ally McBeal series, playing "Larry Paul", an intelligent and attractive man, but too complicated.
Thanks to this role he managed to be nominated for awards:
PrimeTime Emmy, won a Golden Globe in the category of "Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or TV Movie"
He won the award for "Best Actor in a Comedy" from the Screen Actors Guild.
He later confessed that this was one of the most difficult stages in his career, because, while the series was being filmed, he was mired in his drug addiction and felt that he no longer cared to continue acting.
Later that year, on Thanksgiving Day, he was arrested again for possession of cocaine and amphetamines while staying at a hotel in Palm Springs.
There he spent three months in prison, until he was released in March 2001 on bail.
Weeks later, he was found by police walking barefoot, vomiting blood and high on cocaine in Culver City. Downey Jr. implored not to be taken, because going to jail would ruin what little was left of his life and his career, but his pleas were to no avail.
The last opportunity
By 2003, he was willing to resume his career, but no production company wanted to work with him because of the risk of having to scrap projects and pay expensive insurance due to his lack of commitment.
While the entertainment industry turned its back on him, it would be his great friend Mel Gibson who would reach out to him.
He fully trusted in the talent of Downey Jr. and believed that he deserved a new opportunity, so he promised to pay the studio's insurance so that he could star in the movie "The Singing Detective."
Despite the fact that the same legal problems of the young actor had caused him to lose millions of dollars in a failed production of the musical "Hamlet" scheduled for the year 2001.
In 2004, he finalized his divorce with Deborah Falconer and lost custody of her son, that same year, he ventured into the music industry releasing an album titled "The Futurist", although it was not very successful. .
Also, he began dating producer Susan Levin, who, after repeatedly turning him down, accepted his invitations, making it a condition that he commit to completely quit drugs.
In August 2005 the couple got married.
After getting married, he had the opportunity to participate in productions such as "Good Night, and Good Luck", "The Shaggy Dog" and "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints"; however, the best stage of his career was yet to come ...
Iron Man
In 2007, the Marvel Studios company, which had declared bankruptcy years ago, began production of the movie "Iron Man" after some risky decisions.
The continuity of the company depended largely on the results of this film, so they had to take care of every detail; and one of the most important was casting the main character Tony Stark.
The director suggested Downey Jr. for this important role, as he had been impressed with his performance in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." Furthermore, he considered that he understood the character in a way that no one else did.
Although the studio did not fully trust him and preferred Tom Cruise to star in the film, Favreau's insistence was so great that Marvel finally agreed to allow him to audition.
Excited, Downey Jr. attended the casting and managed to keep the role.
The Iron Man film was released in 2008 and was an overwhelming success, raising more than $ 580 million at the box office and ranking as one of the best films of the year. In addition, it was well received by critics and received various recognitions, such as the Oscar Awards for:
- Better visual effects
- Better sound editing
And the Saturn Awards to:
- Best Science Fiction Movie
- Best Actor.
After the success of Iron man, Downey Jr. signed a contract with Marvel Studios to continue playing Tony Stark in three more productions that would shape an ambitious project known as the "Marvel Cinematic Universe"
Marvel
Months later, "The Avengers" was released, where Downey Jr. once again played Tony Stark.
This was consolidated as the highest grossing film of the year, with a collection of $ 1,500 million dollars.
In 2018, he played Tony Stark for the ninth time in “The Avengers: Infinity War,” a film that grossed $ 2 billion at the box office; And, in 2019, he played it for the tenth time in "The Avengers: Endgame," a film that grossed an exorbitant $ 2.7 billion.
In June 2019, the actor announced his new project: the creation of an organization called “The Footprint Coalition”, whose purpose is to clean the planet through artificial intelligence, robotics and nanotechnology.
"I played an iconic character for 11 years, Tony Stark, and what I liked about him was that he had gone from being someone without a soul, to being willing to sacrifice himself for the good of humanity." -They were his words when presenting the project.
LISTEN, SMILE, NODE AND THEN DO THE SAME FUCKING THING YOU WERE GOING TO DO ANYWAY.-ROBERT DOWNEY
