At this time two years ago, Robert Downey Jr. was in the midst of the awards season that ultimately resulted in him winning an Oscar for his performance in Oppenheimer. He was 58. But 31 years earlier, at 27, he was Oscar-nominated for the first time, for Chaplin, making him one of the youngest-ever best actor nominees up to that point. And, he told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday night, he will \u201cnever, ever, ever forget\u201d what it meant to him when some older people in the business whom he admired \u2014\u00a0including Warren Beatty and Anthony Hopkins \u2014\u00a0publicly championed him.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s part of why a few days ago, after watching\u00a0and being blown away by Josh Safdie\u2019s Marty Supreme, and particularly by the lead performance of Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, he reached out via FaceTime to the 30-year-old actor, whom he did not know personally, to share his feelings, and to offer to moderate a Q&A to further call attention to a performance that he told THR he regards as \u201cone of those rare, rare occurrences, like a double-eclipse or something, one of those things that is so uncommon when it happens, let alone to someone who\u2019s so young.\u201d<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s what brought Downey and Chalamet together on Wednesday night at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood, first in a green room for an exclusive conversation with THR, and then in front of a theater filled to capacity with 600 Academy, BAFTA and guild members \u2014 plus additional attendees watching in an adjacent theater via a livestream \u2014\u00a0for a rollicking back-and-forth during which Downey declared, \u201cTo me, this is a decade-defining film, and I think it is a generation-defining performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, in the green room, Downey explained, \u201cThis is a movie that is going to be remembered for a long time. I was watching the 1975 documentary from Morgan Neville, which really talks about that year, when movies were great. And I think there\u2019s a possibility for things to go \u2014 not back, but to go forward, in a way that reflects what cinema is capable of. So when you see it, I think you need to plant a flag and say, \u2018This matters.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Chalamet said of Downey\u2019s support, \u201cI\u2019m so grateful. And it happened totally organically, and by organically, I mean, out of the blue.\u201d He added that he has long regarded Downey as a role model: \u201cHe\u2019s had the dream career I wish to have, as far as being a real box office presence \u2014 numbers don\u2019t lie \u2014\u00a0but equally, across his entire career, from Chaplin to Oppenheimer, very respected. I have huge admiration and respect for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, onstage, after introducing Chalamet to a standing ovation and describing Marty Supreme as \u201ca real piece of art,\u201d Downey said to Chalamet, \u201cI\u2019m flashing back to when you were 22, with Call Me by Your Name, and then to just a year or two ago, with A Complete Unknown, and I go, \u2018My God, this guy is technically so evolved.\u2019 And then I see this movie and I go, \u2018Oh, and now there\u2019s this other thing!\u2019 Which is such a specificity of showing the psychic life of the character, building him from the inside-out and the outside-in. It\u2019s just an astonishing achievement, dude.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chalamet expressed gratitude and then flipped the script on Downey, stating that Downey\u2019s performance in Chaplin had been a big inspiration for his own performance in A Complete Unknown: \u201cChaplin, before A Complete Unknown, was one of the things I looked at and went, \u2018Wow, OK, somebody as recognizable as Robert Downey Jr. shape-shifted into another very well-known figure,\u2019 and it gave me confidence in approaching the Bob Dylan role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chalamet also deferred much of the credit for his Marty Supreme performance to Safdie. \u201cJosh is just a master,\u201d he said, prompting Downey to interject, \u201cI was thinking that you and Josh could have one of those ongoing relationships where you guys keep choosing to be the ones who can get these very specific, very evolved, very important films made.\u201d Chalamet nodded, \u201cHey man, from your lips to his ears, because I couldn\u2019t agree more. At this point, he\u2019s making a movie every six years \u2014\u00a0Uncut Gems came out in 2019 \u2014\u00a0but I do feel like Josh is a genius in his own right, and we sort of enabled something in each other, so I would love to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of the night, in front of the hundreds of attendees, Downey told Chalamet, \u201cI\u2019m literally twice your age. When I was 30, I was making a movie with Norman Jewison, Only You, with Marisa Tomei. And I go to Norman \u2014\u00a0who made Moonstruck and all these great films \u2014\u00a0and said, \u2018Norman, I feel like I\u2019m one of the greats! I want you to tell me if you agree with that.\u2019 And he looked at me like I was nuts. He said, \u2018Well, Mr. Downey, that remains to be seen.\u2019 And I want to say, in front of God and everyone in this audience here, that for you, as of Marty Supreme, it no longer remains to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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