Robert Downey Jr on his overrated performance in ‘Ally McBeal’: “For some people, that’s the litmus”
Robert Downey Jr has led a charmed life in many ways. As the son of a filmmaker, he was exposed to show business from a young age, and made his acting debut at the tender age of seven. When he was 20, he landed a spot on the cast of Saturday Night Live even though he didn’t have any comedy experience, and although the gig was short-lived, it got him in front of millions of viewers.
However, Downey also struggled mightily in his early life and career due to substance abuse issues. After years of stints in prison and rehab, he was viewed as unhireable by Hollywood, no matter how excellent his performances were. Over time, he managed to overcome his addictions and not only regain the status he had enjoyed, but surpass it and nearly everyone else in Hollywood. Thanks to his role as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he is one of the most bankable stars of all time and wields considerable power in the industry. In 2024, he capped that off with a win for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the Oscars for his role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
It wasn’t the first time that Downey was nominated for an Academy Award. He earned his first nod from the Academy in 1993 for playing the titular comedy pioneer in Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin, and his second for his controversial role in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder in 2009. He’s enjoyed plenty of critical acclaim over the years in addition to sky-high box office numbers, a combination that many actors would kill for.
However, Downey is not his own biggest fan, whatever his swaggering performance as Tony Stark might have you believe. In an interview with The Guardian in 2003, the star had a wry sense of humour about his own work, owning up to having made more than his fair share of terrible movies. But when the interviewer asked him about his role in the television series Ally McBeal, which earned him rave reviews as well as a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination, he couldn’t have been more disdainful.
“Funny isn’t it?” He said. “For some people, that’s the litmus. Will he ever be as good again as he was on Ally McBeal? You put a Hugo Boss suit on a guy, clean him up a little, feed him his lines and he manages to perform like he isn’t a drooling goo-goo. ‘Wow! He’s fantastic!’”
In the series, Downey played one of the love interests of the main character, a lawyer played by Calista Flockhart. The role came at a crucial point in his life, directly after he was released from prison after nearly a year behind bars. He acknowledged in the interview that his feelings about his performance are complicated. “I’m probably not the best person to ask about that period,” he said. “It was my lowest point in terms of addictions. At that stage, I didn’t give a fuck whether I ever acted again.”
Despite that period being his lowest moment, it was also a turning point. Downey went into recovery afterward, and eventually made the kind of comeback that usually only appears in Hollywood movies.
