Ep 5. Robert Downey Jr - 1
b'\\u201cMoral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on \\u2018I am not too sure.\\u2019\\u201d -H.L. Mencken\\n\\nHenry Louis Mencken and Robert Downey Jr. did not cross paths in life (though it\\u2019s fun to imagine that conversation), but the essayist\\u2019s quote is an apt description of the actor\\u2019s approach to life. Downey\\u2019s restless intelligence is reflected in his ability to express several contradictory points of view simultaneously, making sense all the while. He can be direct one moment and elusive the next, often spinning off on seemingly unrelated tangents. But like watching a juggler on a wire, being in Downey\\u2019s presence is a riveting experience.\\n\\nFor someone who almost from the outset was deemed \\u201cthe greatest actor of his generation\\u201d, the majority of Robert Downey, Jr.\\u2019s career has been filled with big commercial flops, \\u201ccritically acclaimed\\u201d flops, very public struggles with drugs and more than a little jail time \\u2013 all of which have landed him squarely in some of the biggest blockbuster films in recent history. It\\u2019s an unlikely hero story, but then Robert Downey Jr. is an unlikely hero.\\n\\nWith the release of the final film in the Iron Man trilogy, it\\u2019s ironic to contemplate that the studios also didn\\u2019t see him as a hero, least of all an action hero. Downey disagreed. At once supremely convinced of his own talent and extremely humble, he fought hard for the role of Tony Stark when the studio flatly refused to even let him audition. He prepped intensely, though for other roles he admits he\\u2019s just as likely to wing it.\\n\\nDowney is an enviably comfortable resident of the gray area we all inhabit. He is (somewhat) remorseful about his jail time but without resentment towards the upbringing that arguably introduced him to the lifestyle that led him there (\\u201cI choose to see it in a positive light.\\u201d) His years in the industry have left him clear-eyed and cynical about the business; yet he remains full of enthusiasm and curiosity about his art, and he\\u2019s deadly serious about bringing the best of himself to the set every day. He\\u2019s an obsessive analytic who\\u2019s inclined to let his gut make most of his decisions. On any multiple-choice personality test, Robert Downey Jr. is \\u2018all of the above.\\u2019 Maybe that\\u2019s what keeps us watching.'