The movie Robert Downey Jr hated more than prison: “I’d rather wake up in jail”
Arguably, no one actor in the 21st century has been as crucial to the Hollywood machine as Robert Downey Jr, the American movie star who brought the Marvel Cinematic Universe to life as Iron Man. Fuelling the sensational box office hit, Downey Jr’s cinematic might and overbearing charisma gave life to the MCU and encouraged it to become the biggest franchise of all time in the process.
But while it might feel like he has always been a megastar, two decades at the top of the Marvel call sheet will do that for you, the truth is, Downey Jr has had a turbulent rise up the Hollywood ladder.
An always talented actor, Downey Jr soon found the perils of fame as he fell headfirst toward addiction and hedonism. He would pay for his penchant for narcotics with a dwindling career and even some unwanted time behind bars as he approached the new millennium.
First appearing in the franchise in 2008, the actor had come a long way since his stint in prison in 1999, serving 15 months in state prison for being found in possession of heroin, cocaine and a 357-calibre Magnum. It’s the kind of arrest that reeks of desperation, a call for help that was dutifully picked up by none other than Mel Gibson, whom Downey Jr always credits for helping him reach sobriety.
Performing a pretty remarkable career turnaround, the actor collaborated with the likes of Shane Black, David Fincher, George Clooney and Richard Linklater following his time behind bars. It led to the charismatic actor getting his life-defining role as Tony Stark, a role that would gift him the keys to Hollywood once more.
Spending time in prison is never fun. Don’t let Goodfellas fool you. The conditions are usually bad, the setting cramped and the clientele, well, criminals. But, apparently, according to Downey Jr, this nightmare scenario paled in comparison to one particularly awful on-set experience.
The actor rated his time in prison above one particular movie that he hated being a part of. The film in question was made before he went to prison in 1998, a time when he collaborated with Tommy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes for U.S. Marshals. Playing the villain John Royce, a mole within the US police force, the movie tells the story of a team of Marshals assigned to take down a violent killer.
Whilst the film was arguably essential in his formation as an actor, Downey Jr hated the experience of being in the film, stating, in the book The Fall and Rise of the Comeback Kid by Ben Falk, that he would “rather wake up in jail for a TB test than have to wake up another morning knowing I’m going to the set of U.S. Marshals”.
Continuing, he blasted the movie as “possibly the worst action movie of all time” before adding: “You’ve had a traumatic year, you’ve been practically suicidal — what do you think would be really healing for you? How about like twelve weeks of running around as Johnny Handgun? I think that if you talk to a spirit guide, they would say, ‘That’ll kill you.’ … I thought maybe there was something I was missing, and what I really needed to do was to be in one of those films that I love taking my kid to. It would end up being really depressing”.
Elsewhere, in a separate interview with AV Club, he explained: “I don’t remember anything about U.S. Marshals except that we were running around and pretending like we could ever hold a candle to The Fugitive. I just remember like, ‘Strap on your bulletproof vest, you’re in the bayou!’ What the fuck what? Where’s the story?”.
Take a look at the trailer for U.S. Marshals below, the forgotten movie of Robert Downey Jr’s career.
