Robert Downey Jr: The master of subtle acting

Robert Downey Jr is a rare actor whose personality has always seemed imbued with a strange blend of subcultural abandon and the charisma of an evergreen superstar. Now, thanks to the thumping Oscar win, the eccentric actor’s roller-coaster career has come a glorious full circle. 

The 58-year-old actor took home his maiden Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his measured performance in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’. The honour was bestowed on him three decades after his first nomination for his lead/titular role in Richard Attenborough’s ‘Chaplin’.

The last decade-and-a-half has been arguably the most commercially rewarding phase in Robert Downey Jr’s career. As a sought-after leading man, he has delivered countless successes that include the ‘Iron Man’, ‘The Avengers’ and the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ franchises. Yet, what’s fascinating is that the ultimate Hollywood kudos came his way when the arc lights weren’t fully cast on him, when he was instead asked to be the support act.

Alluring screen presence

The supporting actor capacity has been the realm in which RDJ has excelled the brightest. Although his lead roles are incredibly charming, it won’t be far-fetched to impassionedly claim that he has been at his experimental and captivating best in a supporting act. While his Lewis Strauss in ‘Oppenheimer’ stands as a testament to this discussion, there are a number of other titles from his filmography that further solidify
the case.

Take his role of Kirk Lazarus in ‘Tropic Thunder’ (2008) for instance, which earned him his second Academy Award nomination. Downey Jr was on a great comeback spree when Ben Stiller’s now-cult-favourite comedy rolled by. His maverick energy, combined with the sheer will to take on a precariously controversial role (he plays the role of an African American actor in the film), would suddenly reveal the hysterical and ridiculous side to his game. He was the supporting star of an already-star-studded cast here, and still somehow managed to shine through brilliantly.

Or the part he played the year before in David Fincher’s ‘Zodiac’. Unlike Stiller’s film, this one is a staunch, moody crime thriller set in the 1970s and Robert Downey Jr essays a vibrant yet enigmatic crime-beat journalist named Paul Avery in the film. His casting could today be seen as a masterstroke by Fincher because, despite the limited screen time of the character, RDJ steals the show and portrays the paranoid alcoholic with cutting precision and wildness.

But my personal favourite of his supporting roles remains James Barris in ‘A Scanner Darkly’ (2006). Downey Jr in a Richard Linklater movie is an exquisite daydream-come-true but when the latter decides to be at his experimental best, things only get more exciting. The bizarre, beautiful rotoscope science-fiction thriller sees the actor lend his trademark fast-talking, truth-spitting aura a caustic edge. And the result is one to savour forever.

An actor who fought inner demons

Prior to hitting the jackpot with the first ‘Iron Man’ instalment in 2008, RDJ spent more than 25 years balancing a personal decline and an acting career that brimmed with several spurts of magic. He was the supporting actor in notable comedy titles of the 1980s such as ‘Weird Science’, ‘Back to School’ and ‘Johnny Be Good’ and also dabbled in more ‘serious’ and testing roles in films like ‘Less Than Zero’ and ‘True Believer’. He would double down the following decade and score more notable titles, but not without simultaneously spiralling into darkness with drug addiction.

Between 1996 and 2001, in particular, Robert Downey Jr was convicted on multiple occasions for possession of drugs like heroin and cocaine and an unloaded handgun at one point. His notoriety with substance almost completely took his career from him, with lawyers being required consistently to help him get insured on Hollywood sets.

But amidst all this, RDJ somehow managed to deliver some truly magnetic performances. Lead roles mostly were elusive at this point but great directors, such as Curtis Hanson (in ‘Wonder Boys’), Oliver Stone (‘Natural Born Killers’) and Robert Altman (‘Short Cuts’) knew just how good he was. If one film had him playing an exploitative tabloid journalist, the other implored him to take on the role of a nobleman in a Shakespearean tale. If another film turned him into a makeup artist, something like ‘Wonder Boys’ made him a quirky, memorable book editor. 

Of course, thrown into the mix is the TV series ‘Ally McBeal’ in which he played Larry Paul and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. His performance in the fourth season is said to have resuscitated the show. He will soon be seen in the HBO/A24 miniseries ‘The Sympathizer’ playing a crop of antagonist roles.

Well, there’s no dearth of evidence that Robert Downey Jr is one of the most gifted and rare actors in Hollywood history. Whenever a filmmaker has tapped into the essence of his personality, the results have been remarkable and one hopes to see this free-spirited side of his emerge more often in the future. Here’s manifesting that now!