Credit: Walt Disney PicturesIn a surprising revelation, Robert Downey Jr. told an interviewer that the most important movies in his career weren’t with Marvel Studios or the ones that earned him the most critical acclaim. Instead, he pointed to two of his biggest failures with Walt Disney Studios.
From the 80s to the mid-90s, it seemed like nothing could touch Robert Downey Jr. He was receiving critical acclaim for performances in films like Less Than Zero (1985), Soapdish (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), and even earned an Academy Award nomination for playing Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin (1992). Unfortunately, his career would face a major setback when he was arrested several times for drug-related charges.
However, everything turned around for the actor when he landed the role of Tony Stark in Iron Man (2008), launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Suddenly, Robert Downey Jr. was the biggest star in Hollywood. Not only did he appear in Marvel films like Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and even some Spider-Man movies, but he created iconic performances in Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Tropic Thunder (2008), the latter of which earned him a second Oscar nomination.
Despite the importance of Marvel Studios in his life, Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t credit any of those movies as the most important in his career. Instead, he gives that credit to two of the biggest flops in his career: Dolittle (2020) and Shaggy Dog (2006).
Robert Downey Jr’s Biggest Flops Are His “Most Important Films in 25 Years”
Related: Marvel May Have to Replace Robert Downey Jr. With Tom Cruise After Stunning Announcement
Often, the most critical life lessons come from failure, not success. At least that’s the case with Robert Downey Jr. In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, he discussed why Dolittle, a notorious Disney flop, was one of the most important movies in his catalog.
“I finished the Marvel contract and then hastily went into what had all the promise of being another big, fun, well-executed potential franchise in Dolittle,” explained Downey Jr. “I had some reservations. Me and my team seemed a little too excited about the deal and not quite excited enough about the merits of the execution. But at that point, I was bulletproof. I was the guru of all genre movies.”
“Dolittle was a two-and-a-half-year wound of squandered opportunity,” continued Downey Jr. This stood out for him because he wasn’t just the movie’s star but also a producer alongside his wife, producer Susan Downey. “The stress it put on my missus as she rolled her sleeves up to her armpits to make it even serviceable enough to bring to market was shocking,” he recalled. “After that point — what’s that phrase? Never let a good crisis go to waste? — we had this reset of priorities and made some changes in who our closest business advisers were.”
It was clear that RDJ and his wife had learned a lot from a project where it seemed everything went wrong. But there was one more movie that may be even more important to RDJ than the infamous box office bomb Dolittle: the infamous box office bomb Shaggy Dog.
Related: Robert Downey Jr. Bashes Marvel, “‘Oppenheimer’ Is the Best Movie I’ve Ever Been In”
Mostly known now for its terrifying poster, Shaggy Dog was another forgettable Disney live-action film that also flopped at the box office. Yet again, this is another movie that, while bad on paper, remains important to Downey. Jr. While Iron Man was the film that thrust him into the spotlight, Shaggy Dog “was the film that got Disney saying they would insure me.” Basically, we wouldn’t have the MCU as we know it with Shaggy Dog starring Tim Allen.
Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect example of someone who has been down but never out. Despite multiple career setbacks, Downey Jr. has been able to lift himself back into the spotlight, whether in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or into potential critical acclaim with Oppenheimer (2023).
What do you think of Robert Downey Jr’s analysis of his career? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!