The director Robert Downey Jr called a “legitimate genius”
Few actors have ever experienced a career turnaround quite like Robert Downey Jr. After some early success in the film industry, the New York City-born actor found himself on the wrong side of the law amid some serious addiction issues, but in the mid-2000s, he re-emerged as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Significantly contributing to the superhero movie genre of the 21st century, and winning an Academy Award for his effort as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Downey Jr has proven his credentials as a key figure in American cinema and cut a legacy that will continue for many years.
Even aside from some of the biggest names that Downey Jr has been fortunate enough to work with, he sometimes names some of the directors that have left the biggest impression on him. Shane Black’s directorial debut, 2005’s neo-noir black comedy crime film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, ended up being a significant movie for Downey Jr, and he cherished the chance to work with Black.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Downey Jr once explained that Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was “shot entirely at night”. The actor noted, “I think there was one day shoot and one split, So the rest of the time, we’re getting to work at sundown, and we were working all through the night, every night.”
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, also starring Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan and Corbin Bernsen, serves as a tongue-in-cheek account of the hardboiled crime literary genre. It tells of Harry, a small-time thief who accidentally wins a screen test while confessing, and a private investigator who prepares Harry for his movie role in LA.
Discussing the nighttime production of the film, Downey Jr referred to Black as “a night owl”. He proceeded to gush, “Shane Black is a legitimate genius, and he’d written what I thought was almost a perfect script”. In addition, Downey Jr found that he and Val Kilmer had a “good repartee”.
“He comes in with such an off center point of view on things and yet he’s playing the one who knows everything,” Downey Jr said of his co-star. He’s smart and he thinks that Harry is kind of an idiot, but they become friends.” Downey Jr said the chance to work through the night with the “sophisticated artist” Kilmer and Black was “delightful” and that he has “nothing but fond memories”.
By the time Kiss Kiss Bang Bang arrived, Downey Jr hadn’t played a character like Harry, who he described as “so overtly not intelligent but lovable”. The result was “very freeing” for the actor, having previously played “these kinds of fast-talking smart guys, which I am not necessarily.”
Even more important for Downey Jr was the fact that Kiss Kiss Bang Bang served as his return to the film industry following his absence as a result of drug abuse and prison time. In fact, when appearing on The Joe Rogan Podcast, the actor admitted that Black’s film was the “best” he’d ever done.
The result was that Jon Favreau, who had directed 2008’s Iron Man, saw Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and found something in Downey Jr that made him think he could play the Marvel superhero. “It wound up being a calling card,” Downey Jr noted. “It came out, and it bombed, but Jon Favreau saw it, and he said, ‘This guy could do an action movie.’ And so that wound up being my calling card into the Marvel Universe.”
