The movie that almost decapitated Robert Downey Jr: “Cut! You stupid prick!”
These days, Robert Downey Jr is such a made man in Hollywood that he can do whatever he wants. Win a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ Oscar for Oppenheimer? Check. Play multiple characters in HBO’s unique historical black comedy The Sympathizer? Sure. Return from the MCU wilderness to play the universe’s biggest villain instead of its most iconic hero? Why not. By the end of his stint as Iron Man in that all-conquering franchise, he didn’t even have to wear the clunky metal suit anymore – they just added the costume with CGI. It’s all a far cry from where the young actor was in 1985, though. Back then, he almost decapitated himself by running headlong into distinctly un-computer-generated helicopter propellers in the jungles of Yugoslavia.
Between November 24th and 26th, 1985, Mussolini: The Untold Story was shown on NBC. The three-part TV movie/miniseries starred the legendary George C Scott as the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and the cast also included Gabriel Byrne, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Raul Julia – and a very young Robert Downey Jr as Mussolini’s son Bruno.
When Interview magazine asked Downey if he enjoyed working with Scott, he relished the opportunity to dive back into a production many of his fans would have never heard of. Amusingly, his first recollection of the notoriously strident star was, “I’m not saying that he really even liked me, but he didn’t dislike me, which is why he might have taken any interest at all in me.”
According to Downey, the shoot was an utterly miserable experience for everyone involved. He revealed: “We were all in Yugoslavia. It was horrible…we were all unhappy there.”
Naturally, putting someone as combustible as Scott in such a situation was potentially a recipe for disaster, and Downey Jr confirmed that he wasn’t exactly a happy camper. However, the time he blew his top most spectacularly wasn’t when something didn’t go his way – it was when Downey nearly lost his head in a moment of blind stupidity.
As the crew prepared to shoot an important scene, Downey joked that director William A Graham seemed more interested in his fishing magazine than anything happening in front of his camera. He quipped, “Nice guy, but he prefers fishing.” Perhaps this lack of attention was what led to an extremely close call – but one that Downey admitted was his fault entirely.
“We were shooting George’s closeup,” explained Downey. “And I started running toward these planes. Some people get mesmerised by turning blades. I almost ran right into this fucking propeller.” As the hypnotised Downey ran headlong toward his doom, one of his co-stars noticed what was going on. Downey confessed, “I’ll always send Gabriel Byrne a Christmas card because he saved my life. He pushed me out of the way of this thing.”
The next thing he knew, Downey and Byrne were in a heap on the ground, with Downey trying his best to explain why he’d seemingly just tried to chop off his own head. He exclaimed, “Jesus Christ, it made sense to me to run through that. It seemed like my mark was on the other side of it.”
It was at this point that Scott made his presence felt. Stunned and in disbelief at what Downey had done, the man’s panic and worry manifested as furious anger. Downey revealed that the star yelled, “Cut! You stupid prick! Always look where you’re going! What the fuck are you doing? Goddamn it!”
Downey chuckled: “He was pissed off that I almost made him have to watch me die on his closeup.” However, he added that Scott was genuinely concerned for his wellbeing, as they had formed a bond on the movie – or, at least, as close to a bond as anyone could manage with Scott. With a devilish twinkle in his eye, the incorrigible Downey concluded, “It was cool. I did it again for attention”.
