The press tour for "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" is pretty much at an end, and Robert Downey Jr. is feeling a little punchy. He walked out of an interview with Channel 4‘s Krishnan Guru-Murthy, later calling the journalist a "bottom-feeding muckraker." And now the actor is going all Tony Stark on indie moviemaking, while also throwing some shots back at Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Chatting with EW, Downey Jr., who spent his comeback back years making a string of smaller movies both at the indie and studio level ("The Singing Detective," "A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints," "A Scanner Darkly," "Charlie Bartlett," "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," "Goodnight And Good Luck"), expressed he has zero desire to go off and make a tiny film, working on a shoestring budget. And he had some very harsh words about that world and being a part of a movie on that level.
“…they’re exhausting and sometimes they suck and then you just go, ‘What was I thinking?’ " Downey Jr. explained about why he wouldn’t sign up for an independent film.
"But I’m interested in doing all different kinds of movies. Sometimes the little movies are the ones that wind up taking the most out of you because they’re like, ‘Hey, man, we’re just running a couple of days behind. Do you think you can stay through your birthday and then come back on the fourth of July. And, by the way, but, like, the crew — can you pay for the craft services? And, oh, by the way, man, when we go to Sundance, it’s like, can we just sit you in a chair and you can sell this for six days in a row so that we’ll make 180 bucks when it opens in one theater?’” he continued warming up to his subject, pretending to be an indie moviemaker. And then caps it off with his own rejoinder.
“Actually, most of you are kind of inexperienced and lame,” he said.
It’s pretty dispiriting to hear a major, wealthy, successful Hollywood star, who is a huge part of the blockbuster machine, essentially turn his back on folks who are trying to work their way up the ranks. And it’s also pretty rich coming from a guy who has no problem making mawkish Oscar bait like "The Judge."
Meanwhile, you might recall that last year, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, while doing press rounds for "Birdman," railed against superhero movies, saying they were "cultural genocide." The Guardian asked Robert Downey Jr. about the comments, and as per usual, he had a quip ready in his pocket. “Look, I respect the heck out of him [and] for a man whose native tongue is Spanish to be able to put together a phrase like ‘cultural genocide’ just speaks to how bright he is,” the actor retorted.
Check out the clips below, along with an extra snippet with Robert Downey Jr. sharing his thoughts on the talent of the Marvel-verse, all of whom he approves of.