The Robert Downey Jr movie Steve Jobs hated so much he phoned to complain: “It sucked”
As the co-founder and public face of the company that eventually became the most valuable on the planet, few people in Hollywood would turn down a phone call from Steve Jobs, even when that phone call was made specifically so he could vent his frustrations over how much he hated a movie.
The richer someone is, the more eccentric they can often become. As a permanently turtlenecked billionaire who followed a fruitarian diet, didn’t believe in frequent showers, allegedly soaked his feet in company toilets, wasn’t the biggest fan of wearing shoes, and exploited a legal loophole by driving around without a licence plate on his car, Jobs fit the bill.
He wasn’t actively involved in Hollywood, but since the wealthiest people tend to mix in the same circles, he was familiar with its most powerful players. That said, he was heavily ingratiated with Disney, becoming a major shareholder and board member at the ‘Mouse House’ after it acquired the company he co-created, Pixar, in 2006.
As a result, Jobs had a direct line to the boardroom, and sometimes, he used it to moan. In fact, one Robert Downey Jr film irritated him so much that he decided the best way to let his grievances be heard was to tell them directly to the CEO, Bob Chapek, without bothering to explain why.
“When Iron Man 2 came out, Steve took his son to see it and called me the next day,” Chapek wrote in his memoir, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company. “‘I took Reed to see Iron Man 2 last night’, he said. ‘It sucked.'”
That was that, giving Chapek no time to respond or defend the picture. In Jobs’ defence, though, it was pretty indefensible, with the CEO confessing that he knew the superhero sequel wasn’t going to set the critical world on fire, but he “couldn’t let him feel he was right all the time” by accepting it was crap.
It still made money, because that’s what Marvel movies used to do pretty consistently, and Downey Jr would agree. After the opening chapter changed the landscape of modern cinema forever, for better or worse, the follow-up was rushed out as quickly as possible, and suffered from a severe case of sequelitis.
The Jobs family thought it sucked, and so did Iron Man 2‘s leading man, with the star admitting that “there were certain aspects that were dissatisfying and disappointing to me, but at least they lit me right.” He didn’t feel the need to get Chapek on the line and tell him about it, whereas the Apple mogul used his position as a board member to go directly to the source and let him have it.
That might have led to an awkward meeting the next time Disney’s most valued shareholders gathered together, with Jobs quietly seething at Chapek for wasting two hours of his time on a deathly dull comic book adaptation.
