In 2007, Robert Downey Jr earned his second Oscar nod, thanks for playing a dude, disguised as another dude in Tropic Thunder. But since then, the actor’s career, for better or worse, was mostly dictated by his stint in the MCU, which pushed him to superstardom status, until Oppenheimer.
Despite his decades-long journey in showbiz, nailing the role of Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer wasn’t easy for the Iron Man. Not only was it a far departure from his charismatic billionaire playboy, which sort of resembles his real-life persona, but it also challenged the entirety of his career trajectory.
The Role of Lewis Strauss Was New Territories for Robert Downey Jr
While touching on the character of Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, which earned RDJ his first Oscar win, the actor shared it was unlike anything he has done in the past. Unlike Tony Stark or the other bombastic characters that he has portrayed in the past two decades, the role of Lewis Strauss required him to bring a more subtle approach to it.
He told Vanity Fair:
He’s asking me to kind of transform into someone who’s extremely subtle and plotting, who doesn’t have any punchlines, who’s only charming when he’s trying to manipulate or undermine
Further elaborating on his portrayal of the film’s main antagonist, RDJ recalled Christopher Nolan telling it’s like Amadeus, “where there’s a Mozart and that’s not you”. For the unversed, the conflict between Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus parallels Strauss and Oppenheimer‘s journey, as the former attempts to prove Oppenheimer a traitor.
As the story goes, Robert Downey Jr rose to this challenge, for which he had to resort to new resources.
I found that to be a great challenge, and Chris Nolan had said he was likening it a bit to Amadeus, where there’s a Mozart and that’s not you. ‘Sometimes you’re Mozart, usually you’re Mozart, this time you’re Salieri.’ And so I really took that to heart as him kind of challenging the entirety of my career trajectory and saying, ‘Don’t use any of those things that have served you well. Find new resources
Even though not being Mozart was new grounds for the actor, to say that he delivered would be an understatement
Oppenheimer Was Very Rewarding for Robert Downey Jr
Pushing his acting chops to the test worked out extremely well for RDJ, which earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Further raving about his experience in the Oscar-winning flick, the actor deemed Oppenheimer “probably the best movie I’ve ever been a part of”.
A visionary filmmaker can see things that other people can’t see. [Oppenheimer was] very exacting, very rewarding — and I think it’s probably the best movie I’ve ever been a part of.
Although Strauss was the primary antagonist in the film, RDJ found his decisions to be pretty humane, expressing that he is still up in the air about who was on the right side of history.
Stream Oppenheimer on Peacock.
