The actor Robert Downey Jr wanted to work with forever: “I would rather not do a movie without”
Hollywood is filled with empty promises, backslapping, and words that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, so it would make sense for Robert Downey Jr to declare that he never wanted to make another movie without one of his co-stars and then never make another movie with them ever again.
There’s still time for it to happen, but the longer their paths don’t cross, the more it seems like he might have been talking out of his arse. They’re technically part of the same universe, too, although legal and contractual red tape has probably ruled them out of sharing the screen again in that context.
After his initial post-Iron Man comeback, Downey Jr settled a little too comfortably into his wheelhouse as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Tony Stark. His Academy Award-nominated performance in Tropic Thunder made 2008 a year to remember and one of the industry’s most remarkable resurgences, but after that, it was usually blockbusters or bust.
Downey Jr appeared in ten movies between the release of Todd Phillips’ 2010 comedy Due Date and his initial departure from Marvel in Avengers: Endgame. Of those ten, six hailed from Marvel Studios, two of them saw him play Sherlock Holmes for Guy Ritchie, and another one was a brief cameo in Chef, which was helmed by his Iron Man director, Jon Favreau.
That left David Dobkin’s The Judge as the odd one out. A genuine anomaly in a decade of CGI and green screens, Downey Jr produced and headlined the drama as a hotshot lawyer who returns to his rural hometown following his mother’s death, only to end up defending his estranged father in court when he’s arrested for a hit-and-run accident.
It’s a solid movie, even if it’s not the awards contender he probably thought it would be, and he was bold enough to reject Jack Nicholson’s comeback in favour of having Robert Duvall play his dad. Vincent D’Onofrio and Jeremy Strong were cast as Downey Jr’s onscreen brothers, and he never wanted the latter to leave his side again.
“I will officially tell you that as of now, I would rather not do a movie without Vincent D’Onofrio, ever again,” he informed Deadline. “He literally is like the big brother I never had, and he is just so talented.” Of the combined total of 25 live-action features the pair have starred in since, how many have they both been in? Absolutely none.
It won’t even happen in the Marvel universe either, with Downey Jr returning as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, while D’Onofrio confirmed the villainous Wilson Fisk he’s been embodying on Daredevil for the last ten years isn’t contractually allowed to appear in anything other than TV shows. Still, maybe they should get together at least once, if only to prove he wasn’t blowing hot air.
