Robert Downey Jr. is perhaps the most popular face in the superhero genre, which has dominated the box office for well over a decade. He kick-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark in Iron Man (2008). Since then the MCU has seen 33 installments hit the big screen and its worldwide collection at the box office is nearing $30 billion dollars.
Such is his stature that many fans believe only his return to the MCU could provide the needed push to the franchise, which has shown signs of slowing down in recent years. However, at one point in his career, the leading man of Hollywood’s most prolific franchise struggled to get any prominent roles in the industry and needed a helping hand from Mel Gibson to break open barriers.
Read more: Forget Dwayne Johnson, Robert Downey Jr Should be Leading Transformers after Mark Wahlberg
What Robert Downey Jr. Said About Mel Gibson’s Friendship
In the early 90s, young Robert Downey Jr. impressed fans with his portrayal of Hollywood icon Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin and subsequently earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Naturally, many thought the talented actor would go on to frequently dominate the box office in the 90s.
However, just a few years later, he lost his way due to drug addiction and even found himself on the wrong side of the law in 1996, getting arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine, and an unloaded .357 Magnum handgun.
Downey Jr. vowed to get back on track, but his tremulous personal life meant production companies found it difficult to get him insured – a necessary step for studios before starting the production of any movie. Accordingly, Mel Gibson decided to step up and help Downey Jr. make a comeback by paying his insurance bond for the movie The Singing Detective.
“He’s a stand-up guy – he’s always has been for me – and certainly when I was not hire-able, he put his a-s on the line and said, ‘I’ll take that chance,'” Downey Jr. said (via IMDb). “He will always have my friendship, and that’s just talking about business and Hollywood stuff, which to me is nowhere as important as friendship.”
The 2003 crime musical allowed the actor to slowly rebuild his career and bag roles in hits like Tropic Thunder and obviously, Iron Man. But Gibson’s friendship didn’t just impact Downey Jr.’s professional life but also personal life, as during tough times, the former advised him to not give up hope and find his faith.
How Robert Downey Jr. Returned the Favor to Mel Gibson
A few years later, Gibson found himself on the sidelines of Hollywood after tapes purporting to reveal his angry rants towards his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva came to the fore.
Accordingly, Downey Jr. decided to step up for his friend and asked the industry to forgive him during the American Cinematheque Award in 2011. He said (via The Guardian):
“He said if I accepted responsibility – he called it hugging the cactus – long enough, my life would take meaning. And if he helped me, I would help the next guy. But it was not reasonable to assume the next guy would be him. Unless you are without sin – and if you are, you are in the wrong f-cking industry, you should forgive him and let him work.”
Gibson also started to slowly get work. Lately, he has been in the news for his performance in the television series The Continental: From the World of John Wick.
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