Robert Downey Jr. : The Father of the Man

JT: What other actors do you particularly like?

RD: Malkovich is a genius. I saw him in a play in London that was one of the greatest things I've ever witnessed.

JT: What play?

RD: I forget what it was called. [Laughs]

JT: Anyone else you like whose work you can't remember by name?

RD: Leonardo Di-hummmmmm.

JT: You know, I know him very well.

RD: I know you do. I'm kind of angry that you're friends with him, too.

JT: People compare you two and say he's the new you.

RD: He scares me.

JT: He shouldn't. You and Leonardo both have talents that I'd say are beyond almost everyone else near your ages. But even though you share certain qualities-- wit, intelligence--

RD:--Don't say he's in a league of his own. I'm not prepared for that. [Laughs]

JT: Looking back to when you were Leonardo's age, how do you see yourself in relation to your own generation of actors?

RD: I thought I was somehow outside my generation of actors. There was the "Brat Pack" and a couple of other guys, and then there was me. I thought The Pick-Up Artist would give me a chance to have a real career, and it didn't turn out that way. When I did Chaplin I thought, "Well, this has got to do it!" But it still didn't happen. It still hasn't happened. It really pisses me off. But I have to say, I haven't been in a film that's been a ... a hit. And I guess that's the game.

JT: Any other actors you want to mention?

RD: Christopher Walken. I saw him on this Actor's Studio program on TV last night, and almost everything he said I identified with 100 percent. Including when they asked him what his favorite word on a set was and he said, Lunch. He's a great actor. Why is it that someone who's as good and as versatile as he is--let alone that Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire said that he was a good tap dancer--isn't a major player?

JT: Strangeness of physical appearance.

RD: That's what Walken said, and that's what I think is going to be different. Someone like Chris Walken, the real cream of the crop, is going to be able to assume a power position in this industry if it's going the way it seems to be going.

JT: What's different about film in America today from the way it was when you first started making movies?

RD: Movies are better now, more personal. I think the idea of the auteur is coming back--not self-conscious "art," but film as a way of saying something personal and intense. I've seen movies go from being an actor's medium to a producer's medium to a director's medium.

JT: Which it was in the '60s and '70s when your father, Robert Downey Sr., was in a vanguard group of American filmmakers.

RD: I want to get on that bandwagon.

JT: You've been in some of your father's movies, including the upcoming Hugo Pool. What's it like being directed by him?

RD: It enables you to say "I gotta get out of here early today," and know that every effort will be made to allow you to do so.

JT: Why might you want to get off early?

RD: To play with Indio.

JT: The father lets the son go to be a father to his son?

RD: You bet. Indio's happy when he can spend continuous time with me. It shows up in his expressions. If you love someone he can spit in your face six times and you can still laugh.

JT: Does Indio expectorate in your direction regularly?

RD: Absolutely. He thinks it's quite funny. You know what he asks me every day? "Dad, do I have a diaper on?"

JT: To which you reply?

RD: Check it out and see for yourself.

JT: Do you talk to him as if he were an adult?

RD: To a fault. I have to remind myself that he's been on the planet for only 1,200 days.

JT: What do you feel more like, a father or a son?

RD: A father.

JT: Your father strikes me as the sort of parent who observed his son with curiosity instead of trying to mold him into some personally preferred shape.

RD: That's true.

JT: And that's your way with Indio?

RD: I'm happy to observe, but I have high expectations.

JT: Does he look to you for approval?

RD: Constantly. Just as I always looked to my dad. I always liked amusing him. I still do. Which raises a point about working for my dad as an actor. I'm always looking for the approval of my director, but with my dad I know I already have it.

JT: What recent movies have you liked in particular?

RD: Sling Blade. Speaking of which, I love the way Billy Bob Thornton just showed up today on our set. I said to myself, "Look at this guy, he's sitting there just watching, enjoying himself like a kid having a ball. This guy is a complete dynamo."

JT: You are aware of how much you wanted to impress him, aren't you? He inspired you to do your best work so far.

RD: Let me put it this way In any future movies we do together, I think you should always tell me that Billy Bob is visiting the set and then just obscure the monitor so I can't see who's actually around.

JT: Tell me, do you usually get depressed when you're making movies?

RD: Yes.

JT: Why?

RD: Useless repetition of mediocrity.

JT: Do you express your frustration to your directors?

RD: No, I just shut down.

JT: Are you playing private games as they amble on obliviously?

RD: Yes. Every male director should realize that he's a father figure and act accordingly. As Robert Bly would say, Is he going to be the twisted father or the good father? The good father lets his son play, and the twisted father tries to control him.

JT: And you respond to the twisted father by--figuratively, of course--shooting him behind the left ear.

RD: [Laughs] Yes. I'm amicable--I'm not locking myself in my trailer or dressing down the director in front of strangers, but there's some real subconscious tennis going on. I just want the director to watch me serve, and tell me what a pro I am. A lot of people think actors are in a self-centered haze most of the time, but I think that at their best they're alive with clarity.

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