After receiving his first Oscar for best supporting actor for his role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr. talked candidly about his Hollywood journey. In a recent interaction with People, Robert also discussed how his late father, director, screenwriter and actor Robert Downey Sr., felt he was ‘robbed’ in 1993 for not receiving the best actor Oscar for Chaplin.
The actor said, “It’s crazy that Al Pacino, one of my favourite human beings on earth, presented Best Picture. And it’s also crazy that, I think, deservedly he won the first time I was nominated [in 1993 for Chaplin], for Scent of a Woman… Senior went to his grave going, ‘[You] got robbed for Chaplin.’ He wouldn’t say he really thought any of my other movies were very good or even that he thought Chaplin was any good, but he did know that I got robbed… I think that he would feel that justice was done and that he can rest. But the problem is, he never cared about any of this s*** anyway.”
The Iron Man actor, who struggled with drug addiction for years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, also talked about his journey ‘from an uninsurable actor to an Oscar winner’, he stated, “I think if you develop a moral psychology, things are a lot easier. And I think it’s hard to explain away certain behaviours when there are ways to heal. So I both have a lot of empathy for, and I also am a little bit skeptical about anyone who doesn’t lean into what they can do to improve the state of their compass. That’s all.”
In March, Robert Downey Jr. received his first acting Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance in Oppenheimer.
