“Oppenheimer”'s Robert Downey Jr. Calls Himself 'Most Improved Player' in Golden Globes 2024 Acceptance Speech

Willem Dafoe, Robert DeNiro, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Gosling, Charles Melton and Mark Ruffalo were all in the running at the 2024 Golden Globes

Robert Downey Jr. just won big at the 2024 Golden Globes!

The 58-year-old actor nabbed the supporting movie actor prize at Sunday night's ceremony, for his role as like Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer.

Also in the running were Willem Dafoe for Poor Things, Robert De Niro for Killers of the Flower Moon, Ryan Gosling for Barbie, Charles Melton for May December and Mark Ruffalo for Poor Things.

After opening his speech by joking that he'd taken a "beta blocker, so this is gonna be a breeze," Downey Jr. praised his Oppenheimer colleagues and said his win is "a most-improved-player thing."

The actor also shouted out his "primary caregiver," wife Susan Downey, whom he said has "literally made an art out of extracting me from my comfort zone. ... But she's easy on the eyes, so whatevs."

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Related: Robert Downey Jr. Says Cillian Murphy Made Biggest Sacrifice of Any Actor He's Ever Seen for 'Oppenheimer' (Exclusive)

Recognized by the Golden Globes for the fifth time — not counting the ensemble cast honor for Short Cuts in 1994 — Downey Jr. took home statuettes in 2001 for TV’s Ally McBeal and 2010 for the movie Sherlock Holmes.

In his long and varied career, he’s never played a character quite like Lewis Strauss, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission leader and adversary to J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Opposite fellow Globe nominee Cillian Murphy as the latter, Downey Jr. brought his dramatic chops to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, one of 2023’s biggest box office successes as well as the highest grossing biopic of all time.

Related: Willem Dafoe Recalls Being Recognized on N.Y.C. Subway: 'I Have a Distinctive Face' (Exclusive)

Dafoe, 68, was first recognized by the Golden Globes in 2001 for Shadow of the Vampire.

Several years passed until the next time he appeared on the list, in 2018 for The Florida Project and 2019 for At Eternity's Gate. Thanks to Poor Things, his fourth, he now has as many Globe nods as Oscar nods. 

In director Yorgos Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara’s follow-up to The Favourite, Emma Stone stars as a Frankenstein’s monster, with Dafoe as the fastidious doctor reviving her.

Related: Granddaughter Recalls Killers of the Flower Moon Villain Played by Leonardo DiCaprio: 'Took Away My Family'

The category’s most decorated contender, two-time Oscar winner De Niro, 80, notched a whopping 10th Golden Globe nod for Killers of the Flower Moon.

His only competitive win was in 1981 for Raging Bull, but in 2011 he became one of the Globes' recipients of the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Director and co-writer Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s book Killers of the Flower Moon was honored in the Golden Globes’ top drama movie categories, including for De Niro’s leading costars Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone. It tells the real-life story of the serial killings of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma.

Related: Ryan Gosling 'Doubted' His 'Ken-ergy' Before 'Barbie': 'They Conjured This Out of Me Somehow'

Gosling’s laugh-out-loud portrayal of “blond fragility” as Ken was, despite his being in Barbie’s shadow, integral to the record-breaking success of Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig’s live-action Mattel adaptation.

The 43-year-old Oscar nominee earned some of the best reviews of his career and now can add a sixth Golden Globe nod to his résumé. He won in 2017 for the Globes-dominating La La Land.

In addition to being 2023’s top box office earner, Barbie led this year’s Golden Globe film nominations with nine, including for best comedy or musical, Gerwig’s direction and writing, plus a new category, cinematic and box office achievement.

Related: Oscar Hopeful Charles Melton Calls Riverdale 'Truly My Juilliard'

A first-time contender at more than just the Golden Globes, Melton, 33, is making a big impression this awards season for his performance in May December.

The Riverdale alum won this year’s Gotham Award, New York Film Critics Circle Award and a special Critics Choice Association honor.

Holding his own against fellow Globe nominees Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, not to mention writer-director Todd Haynes, Melton brings vivid life to Joe Yoo, a father who began his relationship with his wife (Moore) when he was only 13.

Related: Mark Ruffalo Praises Poor Things Costar Emma Stone: 'She's a Once in a Generation Talent’ (Exclusive)

Golden Globe-nominated alongside Dafoe in the supporting category, plus Stone in the lead actress in a comedy or musical movie category, Ruffalo showed up on voters' list for the fifth time for Poor Things. He won in 2021 for playing a pair of twins in the limited series I Know This Much Is True.

Ruffalo, 56, has earned some of the biggest praise of his career as the foppish Duncan Wedderburn in Lanthimos’ surreally goofy take on Frankenstein.

Leading the film nominations Sunday night with nine total is Barbie, followed by Oppenheimer with eight and both Killers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things with seven. On the TV side, Succession's final season led with nine nominations, followed by The Bear and Only Murders in the Building, with five nods each.

See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 81st annual Golden Globes as they're broadcasting live from The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on CBS and Paramount+.

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