As the season of film awards and achievements heads towards the night of The Oscars, a select few and equally auspicious award ceremonies are yet to happen. Among them, the Screen Actors Guild Awards seemed to have chosen Robert Downey Jr. as their pick for the Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Oppenheimer, a deserving accolade that almost all organizations and individuals seem to agree with.
And thus, when the star took to the stage to formally accept the award with his hands, he was sure to give credit to the recent accolades of his career to several actors he has worked with in the past. Among them, he also includes the name of Mel Gibson, the actor and filmmaker who practically brought his career on track again after he made a film that un-blacklisted the star from Hollywood.
Robert Downey Jr. Honors Mel Gibson and Other Film Stars In His SAG Award Acceptance Speech
In recent years, there hasn’t been any other star quite like Robert Downey Jr. who almost single-handedly changed the entire landscape of the film industry as we know it today with his role as Iron Man in the MCU.
But he was only able to do so because of the chances and opportunities that he received along with all the stars and filmmakers that helped him achieve the greatness that the industry reveres him with today.
During his acceptance speech for the SAG Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in Christopher Nolan’s latest masterpiece Oppenheimer, the star showed his gratitude to each and every star that inspired and helped him on his journey in his path to success. The list of stars also included Mel Gibson, the man who was responsible for bringing Downey Jr.’s career back on track.
#Oppenheimer star Robert Downey Jr. wins Male Actor in a Supporting Role at the #SAGAwards pic.twitter.com/lyS5oeNeux
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 25, 2024
Of all the individuals that the Sherlock Holmes star listed on the stage, Gibson had the most impact with respect to the star’s career, which pretty much would have been non-existent if not for him casting the star in his flop film The Singing Detective, which he created just to get Downey Jr. off Hollywood’s blacklist
How Mel Gibson Changed Robert Downey Jr.’s Career
If it wouldn’t have been for the actor and filmmaker to help out Downey Jr. when he was blacklisted by Hollywood for his troubled past, we may have had no RDJ or the MCU today.
In the early 2000s, when Downey Jr. had just gotten out of prison, he had nowhere to turn to simply because no one wanted to work with a criminal. This was when The Passion of The Christ director decided to fund a film project titled The Singing Detective, which was the first film RDJ starred in after his release from jail.
While the film neither made money nor the critics happy, it did manage to kickstart the career of the star, which eventually led him to become Iron Man in the MCU, and the rest is history.
