Robert Downey Jr. has become everyone’s favorite due to his iconic Iron Man portrayal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. While his journey seems to have come to an end given that his character sacrificed his life in Avengers: Endgame (2019), it surely became a great part of his life. However, not every experience was a good blast as his trip to Japan for his Iron Man movie premiere ended up getting him permanently banned from the country.
While his acting prowess is undeniably great, there was a time when his active drug and alcohol addiction affected his life. Though he rose from his dark past to reach the heights he enjoys today, it became the very reason why his short trip to Japan became bitter.
Why was Robert Downey Jr. Banned from Japan?
For the Japan premiere of his 2008 movie, Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. traveled to the country however soon after landing, he got detained by the Japanese Government for over 6 hours due to years-old felony convictions as he told David Letterman in an interview via HuffPost. As the authorities checked his passport after landing, they found out about his felony records, leaving them no way but to question him for hours.
He told the host,
“I probably should have seen there was a sign that said ‘No Felons Allowed’ in English and Japanese and I haven’t had that expunged yet.”
He added,
“You can actually get things expunged but I’ve been pretty busy. So I was detained, I was interrogated. It was a blast.”
Since he failed to mention his previous records in the paperwork before arriving in the country, this ended up troubling him later. However, he would have missed his own movie’s premiere but came to an agreement with the authorities after much discussion. He was allowed to attend the movie premiere but on the condition that he would never return to Japan again.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Dark Past Initially Hindered His Casting as Iron Man!
It would be hard to imagine someone else as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the MCU, but long before the role was yet to be brought to life, Downey Jr. was being avoided by the franchise due to his history of drug abuse.
Former Marvel Studios President, David Maisel told The New Yorker about how the board thought of him as crazy on hearing that Maisel wanted the former as the titular superhero for Iron Man movies.
“My board thought I was crazy to put the future of the company in the hands of an addict.”
He continued,
“I helped them understand how great he was for the role. We all had confidence that he was clean and would stay clean.”
Though the board was against his casting, they eventually agreed to give him a chance. The rest is history as The Sherlock Holmes actor did a marvelous job in the first movie, leading to its sequels and the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe we know today.
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He was last seen portraying his character in Avengers: Endgame where the superheroes fought the Mad Titan, Thanos, which ended with Iron Man’s sacrifice. As for the actor, he has continued to showcase his acting skills with projects other than MCU.
