Robert Downey Jr. Once Felt Superhero Movies Were Getting Old
Robert Downey Jr. served as the face of one of the most lucrative superhero franchises in cinema history. But even in the middle of his run as Iron Man, he wondered if the superhero genre was starting to wear thin.
Robert Downey Jr. once felt there were too many superhero films being released
The concern for superhero fatigue has grown recently, thanks to the critical and commercial disappointments of certain superhero films. Some have pointed to Marvel’s most recent flicks as evidence of the concept. An argument can be made that Marvel’s content doesn’t resonate with audiences like it used to. But even during the peak of Marvel’s success, Downey seemed to feel fatigue was setting in.
“Honestly, the whole thing is just showing the beginning signs of fraying around the edges,” Downey said in a 2014 interview with The Telegraph. “It’s a little bit old… Last summer, there were five or seven different ones out. I feel that they are critiqued by a different metric to any other movie. Right, [that metric is box office], but also they are more forgiven because they operate on a different frequency. It’s like a bunch of really good dancers, and you’re looking for the one who keeps changing her leg warmers. They make a lot of money.”
Ironically, a decade later, Disney is brainstorming ways to restore the Marvel franchise to its former glory. One strategy is to release no more than three Marvel movies and two Marvel shows on Disney +. Only time will tell if Disney’s less-is-more approach will work.
Robert Downey Jr. was worried ‘Iron Man’ would ruin his acting
Downey dabbled in a few other roles after he became Iron Man. But aside from Tropic Thunder, which earned him an Oscar nomination, none of his other roles were as popular as his superhero alter-ego. But Downey couldn’t play Iron Man forever. After Endgame, he officially retired the character. After portraying Iron Man for so long, Downey worried he would stunt his growth and range as an actor. A big problem if he wanted to seek out other roles.
“You start to wonder if a muscle you have hasn’t atrophied,” Downey told The New York Times.
He credited Christopher Nolan for encouraging Downey to work the same acting muscles he worried he lost. Oppenheimer couldn’t have been more different than Downey’s superhero movies. With Nolan’s advice and encouragement, Downey left behind all traces of Tony Stark to play Lewis Strauss. In the end, Nolan’s endorsement paid off handsomely. Downey won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Robert Downey Jr. felt his acting as Iron Man went under the radar
Although he worried about the effects Iron Man had on his acting, Downey was also proud of his Marvel performances. So much so that he considered them some of the best work in his career. But since Downey represented the superhero genre, he felt these performances went highly unnoticed.
“I felt so exposed after being in the cocoon of Marvel where I think I did some of the best work I will ever do, but it went a little bit unnoticed because of the genre,” Downey said on Rob Lowe’s Literally! podcast.”[I] did myself a favor because the rug was pulled so definitively out from underneath me, and all the things that I was leaning on as opposed to what my understanding of confidence and security was — boy, did they evaporate. And it rendered me teachable.”
