The 2005 flop that gave Robert Downey Jr a career again: “They tanked”
There aren’t too many people in Hollywood who have had the kind of career resurrections that Robert Downey Jr has had.
So many people wouldn’t have thought that he was going to be one of the biggest names in the industry once the 2000s rolled around, but after dragging himself through some of the biggest struggles that anyone has ever faced, getting to be one of the leaders of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the opportunity most people couldn’t even dream of. But that wouldn’t have been possible if Downey hadn’t actually had a few tough years beforehand as well.
After dealing with some of the worst battles that anyone would have to deal with, Downey wasn’t just going to come back to Hollywood and be welcomed back with open arms. He had been kicked off most of the shows that he was on when going to rehab for the last time, and even though it sounds insane, the idea of having Downey attached to a movie would have been box office poison for a little while.
He needed something that could turn things around, and a lot of it started with making baby steps. Getting the gig in Tropic Thunder was always going to be one of the more controversial things he ever did, but around the same time, he did know that Shane Black saw something in him when he got the idea for him to work on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
And when looking at Downey’s track record, it wasn’t a bad film in the slightest. It’s funny where it needs to be, and while Downey does play the lovable idiot a little bit too well in some parts of the movie, his energy when working off of Val Kilmer is what really puts him over the top. But you have to remember that this was still 2005. No one really cared about what Downey had in the pipeline, and that kind of rejection is what drove him to Jon Favreau.
Because you have to remember that Favreau wasn’t a household name yet, either. Fans might have known him for being in Swingers, and kids might have known him for being the doctor in Elf, but after working on Zathura, it’s not like Favreau was making the biggest blockbusters or anything. And it was that hunger between him and Downey that ended up resulting in the first Iron Man movie.
No one knew that everything hinged on this movie doing great, but Downey remembered Kiss Kiss Bang Bang as being the moment where he could sink or swim, and his partnership with Favreau resulted in him doing Iron Man, saying, “I did a movie called Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Favreau did Zathura. They both tanked, and we were both really hungry to try and do something that would make an impact. And when it released, everybody said, ‘This will do until The Dark Knight comes out.’”
In all fairness, Christopher Nolan’s take on the Caped Crusader is miles better than Iron Man, but Downey was looking at playing the long game. A lot of the movie resulted in a lot of back and forth between him and Favreau on how everything should be done, and even when they had a major franchise on their hands, Downey never forgot about his initial flop, even working with Black again on Iron Man 3.
So it just goes to show you that something might be lurking around the corner every single time that an actor works on a film that doesn’t work out. Not everything can be a winner, but there might be something coming up that will turn everything on its head if you have the right idea to work with.
