Robert Downey Jr.

Robert John Downey, Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning American actor and musician. He became known during the late 1980s and early 1990s after a series of well-reviewed performances in Hollywood films. During a period of drug addiction in the late 1990s, Downey, Jr. continued his acting career, appearing on the television series Ally McBeal. More recent films include a number of supporting and lead roles, in Good Night and Good Luck, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Zodiac, and Iron Man.

Robert Downey Jr. (2014)

Quotes

• Listen, smile, agree, and then do whatever the f**k you were gonna do anyway.
  • Robert Downey Jr. on Inside The Actors Studio, quoting Judd Nelson, 2006-07-09

• It's like I've got a shotgun in my mouth with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal.
  • explaining his drug addiction in 1999 to a judge

• I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics ever since.
  • Quoted in David Carr, "Been Up, Been Down. Now? Super.", New York Times (2008-04-20)

• By creating and associating and synergizing with Tony Stark and the Marvel Universe..and being a good company man but also being a little off kilter and being creative and then getting into all these other partnerships, it was a time when it’s like…[how] owners start looking like their pets…occasionally you would pull back from it and go, ‘Let me stop, let me get off the teet of this archetype and let me see where I stand.’ And you can feel really buffeted, you can get really spun out by it.
  • "Robert Downey Jr. on Life After Marvel: ‘I’m Not What I Did With That Studio’" (14 July 2019)

• It’s hard not to be occasionally overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge we’re facing in this pandemic but nothing has slowed for the strong of spirit during this time. It has been a relentless, pride-swallowing siege of a time, yet productive.
  • "Playing Iron Man was hard and I dug deep: Robert Downey Jr" (13 December 2020)

• I have the best fans in the world and I aim to utilise my platform for good — to share things I uncover about the world, climate, technology.
  • "Playing Iron Man was hard and I dug deep: Robert Downey Jr" (13 December 2020)

• I had an incredible 10-year run with Marvel which pushed me creatively. I now have tons more ambition to do things I haven’t done before. Evolving is key — the worst thing you can do is get in your own way. Just in the matter of me wanting to be a fit father, husband and citizen, it’d be irresponsible of me to not keep my eye ahead so I can prepare my mind for what’s to come and the transition. As an actor, every time I get a script now, I think about the commitment and time I’d be away from my missus and kiddos.
  • "Playing Iron Man was hard and I dug deep: Robert Downey Jr" (13 December 2020)

• I was fortunate in that I was pre-Internet with much of my misbehavior, but I think I always had a bit of a moral psychology and I always wanted to kinda do the right thing, which doesn’t count for much, and then I kinda took it on the chin.
  • "‘Colbert’: Robert Downey Jr. Grateful His “Misbehavior” Years Were Pre-Internet" (8 February 2021)

• It’s a very American thing to build up and break down and come back. It is in its own weird way the heroes journey.
  • "‘Colbert’: Robert Downey Jr. Grateful His “Misbehavior” Years Were Pre-Internet" (8 February 2021)

• I like the idea of a kind of–a guy who used to be on the world. I just love the hermit will, like, I’ve known folks who have verged on agoraphobia and I think it’s weird–it’s just the funniest thing but I think of everyone can relate to it. Could you imagine at some point you just like I’m never leaving the house again except his is also I’m never interacting with another human again. And then, things to these kids that come along, he has to change it.
  • "Interview With Susan And Robert Downey Jr." (17 January 2020)

• I always had an interest in the story of everything. A little bit of an existential crisis always helps when you’re looking for a sea change. If I know anything, it’s that I never learned anything while I was talking.
  • "Robert Downey Jr. on Being an Entrepreneur: 'I Never Learned Anything While I Was Talking'" (2 April 2021)

• You don’t get an education if you press a space bar, you know? You get an education if you open up the back of the TV. So yes. I don’t care about social media, but seeing how it is a tool, I am finally paying attention to the strategy and the culture of what has been going on. I’m just playing catch up.
  • "Robert Downey Jr. on Being an Entrepreneur: 'I Never Learned Anything While I Was Talking'" (2 April 2021)