Robert Downey Jr. as soon as had a status as one of many hardest partyers in Hollywood.
RadarOnline.com beforehand reported The Iron Man star stated he first smoked pot – along with his father – when he was simply eight, and by the point he reached maturity he was a full-blown addict.
Downey, now 60, confessed to graduating to more durable medication, smoking heroin and freebasing cocaine, which led to a string of arrests.
He served a six-month court-ordered stint in rehab in 1996, however after a 1998 parole violation, he was sentenced to 6 months in jail adopted by one other necessary stint in therapy.
In 2001, he was busted once more and ordered right into a year-long restoration program which helped him lastly get sober for good. He credited by no means giving up as the important thing to lastly kicking the behavior.
Now he is one in every of Hollywood’s largest success tales – to not point out highest paid stars – because of a few of his favourite large and little display roles.
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‘Much less Than Zero’ (1987)
Downey performed a drug addict in one in every of his earliest motion pictures.
Downey drew from expertise when he performed drug addict Julian Wells in Much less Than Zero. The movie got here at a time when Downey’s life was dominated by unlawful substances.
He has stated earlier than the movie: “I took my medication after work and on the weekends. The function was just like the ghost of Christmas future.
“After which issues modified. In some methods, I turned an exaggeration of the character. That lasted far longer than it wanted to final.”
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‘Chaplin’ (1992)
He earned rave critiques as Charlie Chaplin.
Downey was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of silent movie star Charlie Chaplin within the legend’s biopic.
“Chaplin was an absolute present and a bear of a problem for somebody who was 25,” he is beforehand mirrored. “It was a task that terrified me. I didn’t know if I might pull it off.
“That concern pushed me to present the whole lot I had. It taught me what performing might actually be.”
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‘Pure Born Killers’ (1994)
Downey clashed with director Oliver Stone on the set.
Directed by Oliver Stone, Downey performs self-serving tabloid journalist Wayne Gale, who helps elevate a pair of lovers and mass-murderers to cult-hero standing.
Downey stated: “This was a precision executed three-ring circus ballet. You simply need to really feel such as you’re making the administrators completely happy. You don’t get that with Oliver Stone.
“He’d say, ‘If you happen to don’t get this scene proper, you’re going to f—— break my film.’ He’s a mad genius.”
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‘Two Ladies and a Man’ (1997)
He was a part of a love triangle in ‘Two Ladies and a Man.’
Downey performs “the man” to Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner’s “two women.”
In one of the crucial memorable scenes from the film, Downey sings You Don’t Know Me. He is stated of that scene: “I’ve all the time preferred singing and I all the time encourage individuals to do it.
“It’s basically inconceivable for the human physique to not to have the ability to produce, maintain, carry and work together in complicated methods with tones and music!”
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‘Ally McBeal’ (2000)
Downey took his skills to the small display for a stint on ‘Ally McBeal.’
Downey joined the forged of the David E. Kelley dramedy initially of the sequence fourth season, taking part in star Calista Flockhart’s love curiosity Larry Paul.
Nevertheless, producers have been compelled to write down him off the hit present after his 2001 drug arrest.
He has since gone on to say he was “extraordinarily grateful for the function, which got here at his lowest moments.
“It was my all-time low. That’s when my addictions have been at their very worst.”
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‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ (2005)
Downey was particularly pleased with this movie.
Downey has stated this movie takes the cake: “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is I feel, in some methods, one of the best movie I’ve ever executed.
“At that time, I by no means performed a personality who was so overtly not clever however lovable. And Harry is form of a dummy, and it was so liberating for me.”
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‘Zodiac’ (2007)
He went on the hunt for a legendary serial killer.
The movie tells the story of the manhunt for the Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Space throughout the late Sixties and early Nineteen Seventies
Enjoying troubled San Francisco reporter Paul Avery made Downey understand one thing really essential: “That’s what I’d’ve turn out to be if I hadn’t stopped consuming and utilizing, this type of depressing previous man.
“Higher to play it than to be it.”
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‘Tropic Thunder’ (2008)
Downey confronted criticism for his controversial function.
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Downey earned his second Oscar for enjoying an Australian methodology actor who undergoes a controversial “pigmentation alteration” surgical procedure to quickly darken his pores and skin for his portrayal of a black character in a pretend film.
Though his efficiency was lauded, Downey would finally be criticized for donning “blackface” within the Ben Stiller comedy.
But it surely was an opportunity “to carry as much as nature, the insane self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they assume they’re allowed to do occasionally.”
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‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)
Downey is credited for jumpstarting the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Little has introduced Downey extra success – and more cash – than his portrayal of Tony Stark in 9 Marvel motion pictures.
“Iron Man was greater than a film function for me,” he is stated. “It was an opportunity to show to myself and the world that I might rise once more.
“I owe a lot of my profession to that.”
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‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)
He was awarded an Oscar for the eventual Finest Image winner.
Downey would lastly take residence his first Academy Award for his portrayal of Atomic Vitality Fee member Lewis Strauss, the nemesis of Cillian Murphy’s physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
He is referred to as it “one of the best movie I’ve ever been in” – and praised his devoted spouse, Susan, for sticking with him within the worst of occasions.
“She discovered me, a snarling rescue pet, and liked me again to life. That’s why I’m right here,” he stated.