As content creators continue to intersect with mainstream Hollywood in the age of social media, Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t believe influencers should be heralded as “stars of the future.”
The Oscar winner recently sat down for an interview on Channel Conversations for our daughters podcast, where he compared modern-day influencers to creatives who “actually want to build something” meaningful.
“It was also a time in the late ’70s and early ’80s where, as dangerous as it was, there was a sense that the competition wasn’t so intense that you shouldn’t even bother trying,” Downey Jr. explained. “Whereas nowadays, people can make a celebrity without doing much besides turning the phone on themselves. I don’t look at that as a negative thing. I just look at it more like a uniqueness challenge being escalated.”
the Avengers: Doomsday The star continued, “I hope the bulk of young people — let’s call it America for the sake of localism — will say, ‘Yes, but that’s not my thing.’ I want to do something, I’m going to make something, I want to build something, I want to educate myself and I want to have more input, so whatever I produce, it’s not just some influencer-type self-aggrandizement.”
He added: “When I hear people talking about future stars being influential, I tell them: I don’t know what world you live in, but I think this is absolute nonsense.”
As someone with over 58 million followers on Instagram alone, Downey Jr. was also asked about his perspective on when an influencer talks about modernity, as well as the contribution influencers can make in the lives of their millions of followers.
“My son, who’s 13 now, he’s kind of gotten into this whole influencer thing, and the next thing you know is, ‘Hey, if you like the way I play this video game, would you like to send me a donation?'” And the reality is that it becomes a debt Iron man The actor said. “So, there’s something about influencers today that’s almost like evangelical peddlers in the information age. By the same token, it’s different because we’re playing in this new territory and so it’s a bit of a frontier and I don’t really have a judgment on it. I also know when I’m promoting a film now, I’ve gotten to know a few of these influencers, and I find a lot of them to be grounded, brilliant, wonderful people. And then you have all the associated joy that’s always there.”
When it comes to his own relationship with social media and having such a large online following, Downey Jr admitted that he is “a bit of a blind man”, and tries “not to go down any rabbit hole” because “I don’t want to be consumed”.
“I know, people say, ‘Robert, they love it when you look like you’re off the cuff, and they get a glimpse into your life.'” He explained, “But yeah, but I’m going to create that side for them, so I like things that make me feel more prepared.” “But I remember Jon Favreau, when we brought the teaser for the movie Iron man To Comic Con [in 2007]He was tweeting on stage and I saw the audience…this is the new color where the audience will feel like they’re on the steering committee of this thing. “Well, that’s partly the new landscape.”
He continued, referring to the film directed by Christopher Nolan in 2023: “Oppenheimer It was the opposite. The opposite of that was more important to me because I had to almost trick myself into doing something so organic and personal knowing that it would eventually be watched and would be there as an item to consume on Netflix.
Downey Jr. is Marvel’s next superstar Avengers: Doomsdayhits theaters on December 18.
