“Not having done drugs for literally five or six years is a lifetime,” says actor Robert Downey Jr. in Playboy’s November issue (on newsstands and available at www.playboydigital.com Friday, October 15). “I think of myself as someone who has no desire, use for or conscious memory of that life. And yet I don’t shut the door on it, and I don’t pretend it didn’t happen.”
At the age of 45, Downey has already been through hell and back after a much-talked-about battle with drug addiction, but is now a model of the turnaround success story. His career re-surged with roles in three major films — “Iron Man,” “Sherlock Holmes,” and “Tropic Thunder” — and he now finds himself in the company of such bankable stars as Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Playboy Contributing Editor Michael Fleming — who conducted Downey’s first Playboy Interview in 1997 — sat down with the actor again at his Venice, Calif. office to discuss his upcoming film Due Date with Zach Galifianakis, his biggest fears, overcoming personal challenges, and why he loves prison shows. Following are select quotes from the interview:
On working with co-star Zach Galifianakis and director Todd Phillips on the upcoming comedy Due Date: “Due Date for me was such a return to a felt sense of community with a small, like-minded group of peers. To me it was like big-budget summer stock…My confidence level lately has been so high that I’m happy to go with people who have a preexisting relationship [The Hangover] and who just experienced something together that was unimaginably successful, enjoyable, smart and a little bit different.”
On his love of prison shows: “First of all, I enjoy reenactments that aren’t done so well that I’m buying it. That creates a certain aesthetic distance. Then I like interviews with someone having some catharsis. It always starts with ‘I kind of had a feeling I shouldn’t be doing this.’ [laughs] It’s never ‘I strapped the hashish around my midsection just knowing it was all gonna pan out for me.’ And they never say on Locked Up Abroad, ‘This was the first time I ever tried this.’ They just describe the time they got busted. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I am part of a culture that is equally fascinated, disgusted and soothed by the socialization of the random suffering of others.”
On the struggles of his past: “Sometimes it’s necessary to compartmentalize the different stages of your evolution, both personally and objectively, for the people you have to love and tolerate. And one of those people, for me, is me. I have a very strong sense of that messed-up kid, that devoted theater actor, that ne’er-do-well 20-something nihilistic androgyne and that late-20s married guy with a little kid, lost, lost in narcotics—all aspects of things I don’t regret and am happy to keep a door open on. More than anything I have this sense that I’m a veteran of a war that is difficult to discuss with people who haven’t been there.”
On taking responsibility for one’s actions, including his own: “To me, here’s the only thing: You take responsibility, whether you’re outraged by the results or not, that you in some way participate in and create what you’re experiencing. It’s people who stay stuck—and I relate to this because it’s a card I’m happy to play when I’m tired or overwrought—who think, I’m a victim; I’m being victimized! You’re out of line! Can you believe this? I didn’t do anything wrong! Well, actually you did…when it’s going down, when the bust is on, there’s never a good time to have your house raided. You just think, Man, all those times I was stuck at the window in my underwear, sweating mortar shells and thinking the cops were coming, and they never came. I would think back on those other thousand times and relax. Then they came.”
On his biggest fears: “Infidelity. Losing my sense of true humility. Looking back I think, Oh my God, I could have been done. I could have been so fried and so bad off and, oh my God, such a cautionary tale. [laughs] And I still could be. By fear of infidelity I mean I have a passion for how delicate it is to maintain things that are really pure. And I don’t find myself tempted because I don’t put myself on a frequency that temptation likes to go. I keep myself in overtly pheromone-free interactions with all women, except my wife. She deserves it.”
On his belief in fate, and whether he thinks it played a role in his current success and happiness: “I don’t necessarily believe I’m meant to be anywhere, but I know there are a lot of probabilities…A lot of my peers who have led pretty healthy lives have been dealing with some serious health problems the past couple years. I put myself at risk for a bunch of years and find I’m perfectly healthy…I have known relative happiness—and by happiness I mean having a sense of peace and not just waiting for the other shoe to drop—for only five or six years.”
On the public’s tendency to rush judgment of celebrities, like Mel Gibson: “I feel for the kind of zeitgeist diagnoses that are being applied to certain of my peers lately, and I think it’s unconscionable…If I’m friends with somebody now, I don’t talk about them for public consumption. But remember, I was in jail, and I don’t want to discredit the doctor, but somebody just decided I had some disease in my brain. Sight unseen they needed to publish it and capitalize on this ‘truth.’ More power to them, misguided or not. But the real problem is this: When you’re in the hood, don’t be alarmed by gunfire. That’s as simple as I can put it. For me, the hood was northern Malibu and my own isolation and dependency therein.”
On his devotion to the newfound discipline in his life: “Discipline for me is about respect. It’s not even about self-respect; it’s about respect for life and all it offers. And not indulging. I have happily reconsidered my position on a bunch of things I didn’t want on my ‘no’ list despite all evidence that I couldn’t handle them. At the end of the day, anything I think I’m sacrificing I’m just giving up because it makes me feel better.”
On the sources of his present feelings of confidence: “My age and my recent set of experiences, which have left me feeling I’m in the zone. This is just the sweet spot of my career and my life so far, and strangely, they’ve come at the same time.”
On playing the role of a superhero: “Probably the person resisting it the longest was me. I resisted being open to thinking of myself in that framework, that I could do the superhero thing. But maybe I could look like I was six feet tall, in the right boots. I could get my arms a little bigger and not move my face so much when I talked. I could jump in a jeep with a bunch of military guys cracking jokes and then not look like a b*tch when the bomb goes off. I might even look like the kind of guy who designs those big bombs. By the way, that’s more likely me. He’s not a hero in the beginning and has no intention of becoming a hero. He’s injured by his own creations. I just love that.”
On Stan Lee, creator of Iron Man: “I feel connected to Stan Lee on some trippy level in that I was wearing nappies when he was creating this character who went through all these transitions and was for years considered a second-tier superhero. By the way, if he had been considered anything else, the movie would have already been made. And so every single thing about it was right.”
