Robert Downey Jr. comes from a showbiz family – his mother is a dancer and singer, his father was an actor, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and director of underground films. It’s not really surprising that he started his adventure with film as a five-year-old (in his dad’s film), and shortly after dropping out of high school, he joined the cult program “Saturday Night Live”, in which he performed live sketches every week on Saturdays in 1986-87.
Sarah Jessica Parker loved him, but it wasn’t enough
His big acting breakthrough came five years later with the role of Charlie Chaplin in Richard Attenborough’s film “Chaplin.” Downey Jr. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and won a BAFTA award. Even then, the actor was addicted to drugs. Unfortunately, he had contact with them for the first time when he was still a child. Many years later, he admitted that he had been using drugs since he was eight years old, and that the person who first gave him drugs was his father.
Largely due to addiction, his almost eight-year relationship with Sarah Jessica Parker fell apart. They started dating when they were 18 and reportedly moved in together just eight weeks later. However, they did not manage to survive. Downey Jr. in an interview with “Parade” in 2008:
I liked drinking and had a drug problem, which didn’t sit well with Sarah Jessica because it was the furthest thing from who she was. She gave me a home and understanding. She tried to help me. She was very angry when I didn’t get my act together. I was in love with Sarah Jessica… and apparently love wasn’t enough.
10 years later, the “Sex and the City” actress admitted in an interview with “People” that although this relationship showed her “what love is”, at one point she gained the courage to leave and tell him “I will pray for you to survive.”
Two arrests while working on one series
From May 29, 1992 to April 26, 2004, the actor was married to actress and singer Deborah Falconer. They got married after 42 days of knowing each other, their son Indio was born in 1993, but he was not sober in this marriage either, which eventually led to its breakup. His wife left, and multiple arrests eventually led to the actor spending a year in a California addiction treatment center and state prison (he got three years, but was released early). And then it seemed that it would be a new beginning – he was offered to join the cast of the very popular series “Ally McBeal”, which needed a suitable actor to play the title character’s great love. Downey Jr. he debuted on the series in October 2000.
Robert Downey Jr. in ‘Alle McBeal’ 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection/East News
Downey Jr.’s role in the fourth season of production made it extremely popular. Although he himself later claimed that he was at rock bottom in terms of addiction and didn’t care if he would ever act again, his talent was also noticed once again – he won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor in a series, mini-series or television film, was also nominated for an Emmy Award. Unfortunately, on Thanksgiving Day 2000, he was arrested for DUI for possession of cocaine and Valium while staying at a spa in Palm Springs.
Although he faced four years and eight months in prison, the producers of “Ally McBeal” decided to give the actor a chance and hired him for subsequent episodes. Viewers were happy to see the character played by Calista Flockhart alongside brilliant lawyer Larry Paul, played by Downey Jr. It was said that this would be the one with whom Ally McBeal would find a happy ending. Unfortunately, the actor was arrested again after several more months spent on the set of the series, in April 2001. This time on charges that he “walked around Culver City barefoot under the influence of drugs” (he was on parole). Producers decided they couldn’t take any more risks and fired Downey Jr. and rewrote the last episodes of the season so that Larry would disappear from them. Some of the scenes – those already created with the participation of Downey Jr. – they even shot it again.
The second wife and… Mel Gibson helped
Fortunately, the actor then decided to change something and sought specialist help. He managed to avoid another stint in prison. He spent a year in a rehab center, essentially a homeless, bankrupt man. He has been sober since 2003.
And then… Mel Gibson enters the scene. Few people probably expected this name. Meanwhile, it’s Downey Jr. to him. owes much of his professional rebirth. In 2003, the film “The Singing Detective” premiered, and Downey Jr. he played the main role in it, among others. because Gibson paid for his insurance when no insurance company was willing to take the risk.
When I couldn’t get sober, Mel told me not to give up hope. He encouraged me to seek faith, mine – not his or anyone else’s – as long as it was rooted in forgiveness. When I was unemployable, he cast me as the lead in a movie made for him, gave me a roof over my head and put food on the table. And most importantly, he said that if I accepted responsibility for my mistakes, I would come to terms with my dark side – I would hug the cactus, as he said… He said that if I hugged it long enough, I would become a humble person and my life would become better. new meaning. And that’s how it happened.
– Downey said in 2011. – The only thing he wanted in return was for me to help someone else someday – he added.
In the same year, while working on the set of the film “Gothika”, he met producer Susan Levin. It was still that time when 40 percent his salary was frozen until the end of filming because the producers were afraid that the actor would not survive to the end. Fortunately, he survived, and even though Susan apparently thought he was a “weird” at the beginning, she finally allowed him to be invited to dinner. Two years later they got married, have two children and a joint production company.
Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey Photo REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
She was also the one who convinced the producers of the new version of Sherlock Holmes that Downey Jr. he would be great in this role. He won his second Golden Globe for it. Then he became Iron Man for years, and today he is the winner of three Golden Globes and an Oscar (the last two awards for “Oppenheimer”). While receiving the statuette awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he joked that she was his vet:
You found me, a snarling animal in need of saving, and brought me back to life with love. This is why I am here. Thank you.
Robert Downey Jr. with Oscar Photo REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
You need help?
If you are struggling with addiction or want to find out how you can help a loved one, you can contact the specialists on duty at these numbers:
- National Addiction Helpline (daily from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.): 800-199-990
- Telephone Trust for behavioral addictions (daily from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.): 800-889-880
- Orange line for parents of children drinking alcohol (Monday to Friday, 2-8 p.m.): 801-140-068
- National Emergency Service for Victims of Domestic Violence Blue Line (24 hours a day): 800-120-002
More information can be found on the following pages.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
