Robert Downey Jr. Reflects On His 10 Favorite Roles That Rescued His Life and Career

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Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr. was 6 when his filmmaker dad shared his pot with his little boy, and it turned his life into a disaster, resulting in years in and out of rehab and jail for drug abuse. But with the help of second wife Susan Levin, he got clean and sober by 2003 … and is now one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood. Here are Robert’s 10 favorite roles and what the 60-year-old actor says they mean to him.

Less Than Zero (1987)

Before this film, “I took my drugs after work and on the weekends. The role was like the ghost of Christmas future. And then things changed. In some ways, I became an exaggeration of the character. That lasted far longer than it needed to last.”

Chaplin (1992)

“Chaplin was an absolute gift and a bear of a challenge for someone who was 25. It was a role that terrified me. I didn’t know if I could pull it off. That fear pushed me to give everything I had. It taught me what acting could really be.”

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

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On his final stint as Iron Man after nine films: “Iron Man was more than a movie role for me — it was a chance to prove to myself and the world that I could rise again. I owe so much of my career to that.”

Natural Born Killers (1994)

This was a “precision-executed three-ring circus ballet. You just want to feel like you’re making the directors happy. You don’t get that with Oliver Stone. He’d say, ‘If you don’t get this scene right, you’re going to f’ing ruin my movie.’ He’s a mad genius.”

Two Girls and a Guy (1997)

“I’ve always liked singing and I always encourage people to do it,” says Downey, who performs “You Don’t Know Me” in a memorable scene. “It’s fundamentally impossible for the human body to not to be able to produce, hold, carry and interact in complex ways with tones and music!”

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

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“‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ is I think, in some ways, the best film I’ve ever done. At that point, I never played a character who was so overtly not intelligent but lovable. And Harry is kind of a dummy, and it was so freeing for me.”

Ally McBeal (2000)

“Extremely grateful” to be cast as Calista Flockhart’s love interest, “It was my rock bottom. That’s when my addictions were at their very worst.” Producers were forced to write him off the hit show after his 2001 drug arrest.

Zodiac (2007)

Playing troubled San Francisco reporter Paul Avery made him realize something truly important: “That’s what I would’ve become if I hadn’t stopped drinking and using, this kind of miserable old guy. Better to play it than to be it.”

Oppenheimer (2023)

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As antagonist to Cillian Murphy’s physicist, Robert won his first Oscar for “the best film I’ve ever been in.” – and praised his devoted wife, Susan. “She found me, a snarling rescue pet, and loved me back to life. That’s why I am here.”

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Robert would eventually be criticized for donning “blackface” in Ben Stiller’s comedy, but it was a chance “to hold up to nature, the insane self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they think they’re allowed to do on occasion.”