Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. is one of Hollywood’s critically acclaimed A-list celebrities, an American actor well known for his roles as “egotistical but likable scoundrels”, as well as “intelligent but eccentric characters” in a wide variety of films.

As a child, RDJ, as he is commonly known as by his fellow actors and actresses in the acting industry, was “surrounded by drugs”. His father, a drug addict himself, allowed him to use marijuana at age eight, an incident which his father has said he now regrets. Robert stated that drug use became an emotional bond between him and his father: “When my dad and I would do drugs together, it was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew how.” Eventually, he began spending every night abusing alcohol and “making a thousand phone calls in pursuit of drugs”, and he would go on to struggle with abuse for decades.

Despite having been in showbiz for about 45 years, RDJ is still able to add a long list of awards and nominations to his name up to this decade. Such include the MTV Movie Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the Saturn Awards, Teen Choice Awards, People’s Choice Awards and many more.

I admire RDJ because he is a very talented and engaging actor-he is able to play roles in movies that appeal to both the younger generation and the older generation, such as Iron Man (2008) and Sherlock Holmes (2009), Chaplin (1992) and Due Date (2010). No matter the role, he is always able to the bring more life to the movie he acts in by adding more humour and sometimes that bit of sarcastic touch to his character.

I also respect him in certain ways.  RDJ’s problems escalated from 1996 to 2001, leading to arrests, rehab visits and incarcerations, and he was even fired from a few television and movie roles that he had been selected to play then. However, in 2001, he was finally able to quit his addiction with drugs after so many years of drug abuse, and was also able to start his career all over again with the help of his close friend and family. It wouldn’t have been easy to quit drug addiction, but he did so eventually and has never returned to his addiction since, hence I respect him due to him being able to get back to his feet and move on with his life.

Another reason why I respect him is because I think that he’s very self-righteous and stands up to what he thinks is right. He literally walked out on a reporter who was prying into his past problems with drugs, when the main purpose of the interview was to promote the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron, whereby he starred as Iron Man. He was upset and didn’t think he should have to endure such probing questions when he’s promoting a movie, and going forward, he says he’ll probably extricate himself from a similar situation before it leads to a physical altercation. I thought that he was able to keep his cool rather well, considering how the topic was about his past,

Do watch some of Robert Downey Jr. ‘s newer movies if you want to watch something witty after a long day in school. They really are worth watching!

Germaine Lee (2T)