Robert Downey Jr claims ‘Oppenheimer’ was like “picking pepper out of fly shit”
Ever since his career rose from the ashes to reinvent him as one of the biggest stars in the industry, Robert Downey Jr. hasn’t snatched many opportunities to step outside of his wheelhouse to try a completely off-brand role.
Spending over a decade as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Tony Stark required a certain kind of performance. However, outside of his long-running stint as the face of the superhero franchise, chances to stretch his dramatic capabilities to their limit were few and far between.
Meanwhile, he was on action hero mode in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes duology, played things for laughs opposite Zach Galifianakis in Due Date. He also snagged an Academy Award nomination for his hilarious turn in Tropic Thunder, while his more straightforwardly serious work in The Soloist and The Judge didn’t make much of a dent.
The less said about Dolittle the better, although it did convince Downey Jr. that he needed to seriously freshen up his act, which sent him straight into the waiting arms of Christopher Nolan and Oppenheimer. A decision that was well and truly vindicated, he was named ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the Oscars to kick off a new and exciting chapter in a career that began all the way back in 1970.
Speaking to Esquire, Downey Jr. admitted that the part of Lewis Strauss would rob him of the very things that saw him reborn as an A-list superstar in the late 2000s, which is why he was so intensely drawn to the part. Not only that, but he offered an interesting comparison for how he found his way into the role.
“I knew that playing Strauss, in Oppenheimer, was going to be like picking fly shit out of pepper,” he said. “That it was going to be extremely exacting, that it was going to be not confining, but liberating by its varied implicit limitations of what my usual toolbox is.”
Downey Jr. couldn’t go big, he couldn’t go broad, and he couldn’t lean into his natural charisma in order to fully embody the character. Nevertheless, it didn’t prevent him from delivering one of his best-ever performances and securing the crowning achievement of his lengthy career when he took to the podium to collect his Oscar.
Next up for Downey Jr. is Park Chan-wook’s satirical comedy series The Sympathizer, which finds him caked under varying degrees of makeup to play multiple characters. As he explained it, Oppenheimer had left him “like a coiled spring,” with The Sympathizer serving as the “unwind” that allows him to flex an entirely different set of acting muscles.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.