In the marathon obstacle course of a career, it's just good to have all the stats on paper for why you're not only a team player but also why it makes sense to support you in the projects you want to do - because you've made so much damned money for the studio.
— Robert Downey, Jr.
I grew up with a lot of people whose whole prime mover was dad rage. I never really had it - it always seemed so empty. It always seemed to be masking something else, which was really their own lack of initiative.
If I could eat whatever I wanted every day, I would have Domino's pizza with pasta carbonara inside every slice. And at night, I would have Neapolitan ice cream until I felt absolutely toxic. And then I would drift off telling myself, 'It's going to be O.K... It's going to be O.K. you're going to train in the morning.'
I understand reversal of fortune; that usually has come through my own hand, but you know, you live life on life's terms.
Life is just so painful and messy and hard and worth it and all that stuff.
I like mainstream movies that are completely off the wall.
I've noticed that worrying is like praying for what you don't want to happen.
Acting is the most wildly overpaid position imaginable.
I'm coming from a place of total strength and humility now.
It's hard to get out of the barrel. It's slippery around the edges and people are happy to see you fall back in.
Sometimes you just gotta be drop-kicked out of the nest.
Do I want to be a hero to my son? No. I would like to be a very real human being. That's hard enough.
It's a very smart and heartfelt movie and that's why, I think, we're all drawn to it. We really showed up for this with this collective idea that it was really ambitious, but we felt we all really had something to gain from it.
Look, even bad years are pretty good years I think.
With a terrible script you hustle and try to make it better. But with a good script it can be trouble because you rest on your laurels, so to speak, you think it's going to translate easily.
I read the script for Wonder Boys, and I said that was almost perfect, it was so classy, cool and funny. It's a really specific thing. We stuck to it, it turned out good and a lot of people liked it.
I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you've done.
'Shaggy Dog' was a very, very important movie for me. It was a very enjoyable experience.
All I want, and I think all any parent with a semblance of a moral psychology wants, is for my kid to have his own experience, uninhibited.
If someone really takes a risk, it doesn't get dismissed. That's what happened when the Oscar was won posthumously by Heath Ledger, who did one of the definitive villain performances of all time. But it really has to be exceptional in defining everything we previously knew about the actress or the actor.
I always think part of success is being able to replicate results, taking what is interesting or viable about yourself as a professional person and seeing if you bring it into different situations with similar results.
In movies, people seem to be more emotional than they would ever be if that situation was actually happening to them.
If you're raised with a poverty mentality, nothing is going to change it. I do know some really stingy billionaires. I come from such a generation of hand-to-mouthers.
Dad's Jewish and Irish, Mom's German and Scotch. I couldn't say I was anything. My last name isn't even Downey. My dad changed his name when he wanted to get into the Army and was underage. My real name is Robert Elias. I feel like I'm still looking for a home in some way.
I take some pride in... representing myself exactly how I would like to have my son remember me to his kids.
I had this bad-boy-from-New York vibe going, dressed like a punk rocker with spiky hair.
I walk by studio heads and they actually look and put their hand out now, like maybe I should be on their radar.
I just don't like big guys who speak cryptically and act like they understand the language better than me.
I don't want to be so confident in myself.
I think life changes every year. This is just a little more comfortable.
If you're doing a drama that has some comedic elements you can't forget that it's primarily a very serious film that has some light relief.
When you have a good script you're almost in more trouble than when you have a terrible script.
I'm not 40 yet. I wouldn't even bother comparing myself to Chaplin.
I've always just shown up and tried to figure out what's for lunch and am I going to get to play some racquetball that night.
Sometimes if you're wanting to look just a little bit taller, then you want to dress with just more of a thin cut.
I'm not particularly tall, strong, fast, or aggressive.
I think I just never wanted to be the creepy guy where people say, 'Why do his leading ladies keep getting younger and younger, and why do they think he's so hot even though we know that the girl who's playing this part actually has a handsome boyfriend?'
I'm very good at deconstructing. I'm a very good troubleshooter for why something is unlikely to work. And most everything is unlikely to work.
Nothing pleases me more than when somebody who was awe-inspired to be working with me realizes I'm just another schmuck that they're bored of hanging out with on a set. I love that moment. I like it when that persistent illusion is smashed.
It's interesting when you're old enough to take a new, objective approach looking at your parents, frame them in a way where you are actually taking yourself out of the equation and just look at the things that are true about their life.
I want to give myself the freedom not to have to be projecting my whole life ahead.
I guess the issue for me is to keep things dynamic.
I'm in a happy relationship, me and my ex are on really good terms, my kid and I are in a good spot.
There are some parents who have really done it right and told their kid, 'You know, we have this dough, none of this is for you. You have to get your own.'
I think that we all do heroic things, but hero is not a noun, it's a verb.
Does any new parent, even if you're not a first-time parent, ever really know what to do?
I was kind of like chasing my tail and trying to do the right thing, and was a little bit stupid. Or irresponsible, which is the same thing I guess. It's just been really busy and I had a lot of great opportunities.
But I will agree that I think that things happen with people in relationships, that you might have been able to enjoy Morocco, say, if you weren't getting out of a bad marriage. You know what I mean?
But I think Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang really got that thing where, if a movie reads really funny and then has some dramatic or violent or sinister stuff in it, you can't forget that primarily it has to be even funnier than you read it or that other stuff doesn't work.
Acting is always a challenge.
