Rosario Dawson’s Acting Once Upset Robert Downey Jr. So Much That He Broke Character in a Film
Robert Downey Jr. has worked with many co-stars in the long list of successful projects he’s done. One of his movie co-stars, actor Rosario Dawson, was once made to antagonize him so much that he couldn’t maintain his character.
Robert Downey Jr. once starred in the film ‘A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints’
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints was a 2006 project directed by Dito Montiel. It was adapted from Montiel’s memoir of the same name about a successful writer who revisits his childhood neighborhood in Astoria, New York. The film featured an ensemble cast that included Downey, Dawson, Shia LaBeouf and Channing Tatum. Downey played Montiel in the flick, and helped get the film made in the first place.
Montiel and a friend of his made a short film using material from his memoir. Then he showed the short film to the Sherlock Holmes actor, who gave Montiel his approval.
“I had sort of known Robert Downey, Jr. which is a nice thing when you’re trying to make a movie. He came in, saw the short and said, ‘This is great. Let’s do it,’” Montiel once recalled to NYC Movie Guru. “Of course, that comes to a long process of craziness, but, in the end, he stayed there for that day. [The cast] stuck by a director that they really didn’t know what he was doing. I had a [good] feeling and it doesn’t happen all the time. This was just a lucky course of events.”
Downey would later end up as producer for the full feature.
Rosario Dawson’s acting upset Robert Downey Jr. so much that he broke character
Montiel was pleased with the cast that he was able to bring together for Saints. This included Rosario Dawson, who ended up playing a character named Laurie in the movie. It’s the only feature that Dawson has done with Downey so far.
While acting alongside her co-star, however, Dawson was pushed by Montiel to act as aggressively as possible towards Downey. But the suggestion may have provoked some real hostility out of the Iron Man star.
“We have this one scene together on a roof and the director kept being like, ‘Really antagonise him!’ So I get into this scene and I knock him on his forehead and be like, ‘Oh, you just think you a man,’ or something like that. And his eyes, like, [he] broke character and he was like, ‘Do not touch my face.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to get thrown off the roof right now,’” she once recalled on the Rachael Ray Show.
What Rosario Dawson learned about acting with other co-stars
Like Downey, Dawson has also acted with many co-stars during her successful career in the film industry. While perfecting her craft, the Kids star realized how deeply her performance could be affected by the acting of her onscreen partners.
“I worked with this acting coach, years ago, Alan Savage, who said, ‘Why do you say this line in this script?’ And people would go, ‘Well, I have this thing, and they’ve done all this research. They’d go all into it. He’d go, ‘No, you said that line because of the line before it. That’s it,’” Dawson recalled in an interview with DP/30.
Sometimes, the chemistry between two stars could be more important to an actor’s performance than what’s written in the script. And perhaps even more important than how much research an actor puts into a particular role.
“And that’s really, vitally important. I said this line to you, and now I hear what you have to say to me, and this is what I have to say back to you,” she explained.
