What movie did Mel Gibson cast Robert Downey Jr in?

It might not be widely known today, but Robert Downey Jr and Mel Gibson have shared a close friendship for over 30 years. Throughout their rollercoaster careers in Hollywood, both have experienced remarkable highs and devastating lows. Downey’s well-documented struggles with drug addiction in the 1990s saw him spiral into legal troubles and left him blacklisted by major studios for several years. In contrast, Gibson’s fall from grace came in 2006, when a DUI arrest was overshadowed by his infamous outburst of racist and antisemitic remarks, tarnishing his reputation and career.

Fascinatingly, though, both stars have had each other’s backs when they’ve gone through bad times – no matter how poor their behaviour was. For instance, in 2011, Downey made an impassioned speech at the 25th American Cinematheque Awards for Hollywood to forgive his friend for his controversies and give him a second chance at a mainstream career.

Downey quipped, “Unless you’re completely without sin – in which case you picked the wrong fucking industry – in forgiving my friend his trespasses,” before pleading for Hollywood to offer him “the same clean slate you have given me”. This would, in theory, “allow him to continue his great and ongoing contribution to our collective art without shame.”

In that same speech, though, Downey revealed precisely why he’ll never give up on Gibson – because Gibson never gave up on him. You see, in the early 2000s, a remake of the ’80s BBC musical The Singing Detective was being developed by Gibson’s production outfit Icon with the intention of him starring in the lead role. At that time, Downey had managed to get sober and was desperate to work, but he found it almost impossible to land any roles because insurance companies wouldn’t sign off on him being hired.

Seeing that his pal was in trouble, Gibson stepped away from the lead role and saw to it that Downey Jr was hired instead. To minimise the studio’s risk, he also paid the star’s insurance bond out of his own pocket – meaning if Downey messed up in any way, Gibson would be on the hook for the money. This incredible gesture meant the world to Downey, who finished the production without incident and was finally able to move forward in his career.

“He kept a roof over my head and food on the table,” admitted Downey, “And most importantly, he said if I accepted responsibility for my wrongdoing and embraced that part of my soul that was ugly — ‘hugging the cactus,’ he calls it — he said that if I hugged the cactus long enough, I’d become a man.”

What was Robert Downey Jr’s first movie?

Downey has always been honest about how his dysfunctional childhood helped shape him into the troubled young man he became. He has admitted to being exposed to drugs at a young age by his filmmaker father, Robert Downey Sr, although he reasoned, “When my dad and I would do drugs together, it was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew how.”

As one of his era’s most preeminent counterculture filmmakers, Downey Sr was always trying to push the envelope in his microbudget features. He was prolific, too, which meant the opportunity to get in front of a camera for the first time came very early for Downey. He was only five years old when he starred in his first movie, a trippy 1970 effort named Pound, in which little Downey played a puppy—in human form—as it waited to be adopted or euthanised.

Which movies earned Robert Downey Jr his Oscar nominations?

In his career, Downey has been nominated for three Academy Awards, but it took him until his third nomination at the age of 58 to finally win a Little Gold Man.

Downey’s first nomination came in 1993 when his performance as Charlie Chaplin in Richard Attenborough’s biopic Chaplin put him in the running for ‘Best Actor’. Unfortunately, he lost out on the night to Al Pacino for his controversial performance in Scent of a Woman.

Speaking of controversy, Downey’s second nomination came for a role that many see as problematic these days – although Downey has consistently refused to apologise for it. In 2009, he netted a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nomination for his hilarious turn as Kirk Lazarus in Ben Stiller’s Hollywood-skewering comedy Tropic Thunder, but this time, he lost to Heath Ledger’s seismic performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

Downey finally landed his trophy in 2024, though, when Hollywood couldn’t deny the power of his skin-crawling performance as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s epic Oppenheimer. The ecstatic star began his speech by joking, “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order,” and marvelled at how his wife Susan found him as “a snarling rescue pet” before loving him “back to life”.

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