The stern warning from Mel Gibson that resurrected Robert Downey Jr: “If you go down, I’ll kill you”
As many case studies have shown over the years, Hollywood isn’t the best industry for someone with issues relating to addiction and impulsive behaviour. For Robert Downey Jr, his early career successes were suddenly contrasted with drug-related scandals, which threatened to derail a very promising tenure in the film industry.
He found himself on screen for the first time in 1970 when his father, Robert Downey Sr, cast him in his film Pound. He starred in a few more movies as a kid before rising to prominence as a proper star in the 1980s. By the early years of the following decade, however, Downey was receiving recognition for accomplished performances, such as playing the legendary silent star in Chaplin. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his role while also taking home a Bafta – proof of his early career success.
The actor went on to appear in many popular movies, like Natural Born Killers and Hail Caesar, before finding himself consistently under arrest for possession of drugs, which led him to end up in prison. He was even arrested on one occasion for speeding while in possession of a gun, with various drugs also found in his vehicle. The actor was put in rehab multiple times – escaping in one instance. It appeared as though issues that Downey had been facing in his personal life were made even harder to deal with due to his proximity to drugs in Hollywood.
Thus, Downey’s career began to dip in the late 1990s—a time when he should’ve been achieving even greater heights following the momentum of his early successes. Still, he took the time that he needed to fully recover, and it was a certain star who had faith in Downey when no one else did who helped him get back on track and subsequently become a cinematic icon.
Downey was cast in The Singing Detective by Keith Gordon in the early 2000s, which Mel Gibson co-produced. While many filmmakers might have been unsure of casting a man who had recently been in and out of jail and had faced a serious drug addiction, Gibson had faith in him. In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Gordon explained how Gibson helped to save Downey’s career.
“You have to remember, Downey was not hirable at this point in time; you couldn’t get him insured. The only reason we could use him is because Mel was financing it, and Mel said to Robert, ‘If you go down, this is my money, and I’ll kill you’ – that was the insurance!”
With this pressure looming over him, Downey performed in the film. The movie wasn’t super successful, but the actor proved that he was now “hirable” again. “People might not realise how unusual that is – you just don’t make a movie without insurance. The fact that we did was purely because Mel was willing to take that risk for Robert, which I found really touching”.
Over the next few years, Downey rose to become a star, and he eventually bagged the role of Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in many movies as his character. He even won an Oscar for his performance in Oppenheimer, one of many acclaimed movies he has featured in over recent years. Clearly, Gibson’s faith in Downey helped him to get back on track.
