Robert Downey Jr. is one of the biggest movie stars of our generation. The actor recently won his first Oscar for his role in Christopher Nolan’s monumental 2023 historical drama Oppenheimer. But, despite his many impressive movie roles, Downey Jr. will forever be Iron Man for Marvel fans.
The 59-year-old actor also won fans over after candidly talking about his battle with drug addiction and how he overcame it. However, long before the Iron Man actor was on his road to redemption, he played the role of a drug addict in a forgotten 1987 thriller. Playing the said role catapulted him further into the dark depths of addiction.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Forgotten 1987 Movie Role Foreshadowed His Dark Future
Robert Downey Jr. who was recently praised by his Home for the Holidays director Jodie Foster, also starred in the 1987 drama film Less Than Zero. The film, loosely based on Bret Easton Ellis’ first novel of the same name, is directed by Marek Kanievska. It follows the lives of rich white kids in Los Angeles as they do drugs and squander their time away.
Besides the Iron Man 2 actor who recently hinted at his possible MCU return, the movie also stars Andrew McCarthy, James Spader, and Jami Gertz. In the film, Downey Jr.’s character Julian Wells is digging deeper holes for himself. He, not only, sleeps with his best friend’s girlfriend, but also owes $50K to his loaner.
Robert Downey Jr. later told The Guardian in a 2003 interview that he spiraled deeper into addiction after playing Julian Wells. The star recalled how up until that film, he had been using drugs off-set. But that changed when he played Wells who was also a drug addict.
The star said,
“Until that movie, I took my drugs after work and on the weekends. Maybe I’d turn up hungover on the set, but no more so than the stuntman. That changed on Less Than Zero.”
The Sherlock Holmes actor also called the role his “ghost of Christmas future,” meaning something that foreshadowed the next decade of his life.
“I was playing this junkie-fa***t guy and, for me, the role was like the ghost of Christmas future.”
Downey Jr told the outlet that initially Wells was an exaggeration of him. However, after filming Less Than Zero, he became an exaggeration of the character. His exact words were,
“The character was an exaggeration of myself. Then things changed and, in some ways, I became an exaggeration of the character. That lasted far longer than it needed to last.”
However, the Oscar winner’s days battling addiction are far behind him. After sobering up in 2003, the actor’s life took a turn for the better. Since commencing his sobriety, he has starred in titles like 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and 2007’s Zodiac. But, his true redemption came in 2008’s Iron Man. Since then he has reprised his iconic role as the billionaire playboy superhero in 10 Marvel films. In many ways, the star was the face of Marvel before bidding the role goodbye in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.
Less Than Zero Director Gave Robert Downey Jr. His First Validation On Set
Robert Downey Jr. has starred in many iconic films. He had famously began talking to himself while filming 2008’s Tropic Thunder.
Despite, the severe effect of the actor’s Less Than Zero role on his life, he has also shared what he gained from that movie. During his 2020 appearance on Off Camera with Sam Jones, the father of three recalled that the 1987 drama thriller’s director Marek Kanievska gave him his first taste of true validation on set.
He recalled shooting the film’s tense tennis court scene. It is a heartbreaking exchange between his character Julian Wells and his father. The helpless son asks his father to help as his addiction has gotten worse.
The director asked everyone on set to be quiet and focus on the difficult scene. The actor recalled how he felt the need to be able to go from “zero to sixty” so he didn’t have everyone waiting around for him.
“The director told everybody to stop what they were f***ing doing. Be quiet and concentrate because what I was going to do was going to be special and it was going to be difficult and it was going to be their fault if I wasn’t able to get there.”
Ever since his Less Than Zero role, Downey Jr took on more challenging roles in 1992’s Chaplin, 1994’s Natural Born Killers, 2006’s A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, 2007’s Zodiac, and more before finally becoming Iron Man.
Not only is he the actor responsible for the revival of Marvel on the big screen, but he also enjoys a beautiful home life with his wife Susan Downey, and their kids, son Exton Elias Downey and daughter Avri Roel Downey.
Less Than Zero is available to stream on Hulu, Apple TV, and Prime Video.
