Robert Downey Jr names the greatest director he’s ever worked with: “In a class by himself”
When Robert Downey Jr rose to prominence in the late 1980s, he eventually found himself leading the 1992 biopic Chaplin, earning himself a ‘Best Actor’ nomination at the Oscars and proving to be one of Hollywood’s greatest rising stars. Yet, his drug addiction and continuous run-ins with the law prevented him from becoming the next big thing, resulting in a career setback that threatened to ruin his progress.
However, Downey Jr is also proof that you can still find success in spite of difficulties, and in the 2000s, a string of roles in movies like Wonder Boys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, A Scanner Darkly, and Zodiac brought him back from the brink. When 2008 rolled around, however, the actor received his proper big break in Hollywood, playing the titular character in Iron Man as well as one of the protagonists in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder.
Since then, the actor has remained sober and dominated Hollywood with his roles in everything from Sherlock Holmes to the various Marvel movies he has appeared in as Iron Man, like Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame. He even won his first Oscar after working with Christopher Nolan in Oppenheimer, establishing himself as much more than just a blockbuster guy.
The actor’s resumé is incredibly varied, and it appears he has quite a penchant for comedy, having starred in various humorous titles over the years to mixed success. Nevertheless, there is one that allowed him to work with a filmmaker whom he described as being “in a class by himself”, clearly considering them in high regard.
It was 2010, and in the wake of his Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes successes, Downey Jr appeared in the comedy Due Date, directed by Todd Phillips. The movie co-starred Zach Galifianakis as a budding actor who Downey Jr’s character, Peter, had to travel across America with to get back to his wife in time for the birth of their child. The road comedy came just a year after Phillips’ The Hangover, and it follows in a similar vein as both characters get into all sorts of scrapes as they attempt to get back to Atlanta.
The movie received mixed reviews, with most critics deeming it inferior to The Hangover, although Downey Jr was incredibly impressed by Phillips. “I think it was just the most healing project that I’ve ever worked on,” he explained to Cinema Blend, continuing, “And I’ve never come up against anyone who is so confident and so thoughtful and so spontaneous that it’s not even daunting. He’s just in a class by himself, and I think that Todd is the best director that I’ve ever worked with, bar none.”
Phillips has since gone on to find further success with two more movies in The Hangover franchise, although his biggest achievement is undoubtedly earning a ‘Best Director’ Oscar nomination for Joker. He might not have found the same success with Joker: Folie à Deux, but Phillips has certainly proved himself as more than just the creator of accessible comedy movies. We can’t help but wonder, however, if Downey Jr still stands by his declaration that Phillips is the “best” director he has ever worked with.
