Robert Downey Jr. Reveals Why He's Pleased With His First Oscars Loss
Robert Downey Jr. is looking back at his first Academy Award nomination in a category he said he was relieved to not win over three decades ago.
The actor spoke to “The View” Wednesday about being nominated in the Best Actor category for his star role as Charlie Chaplin in the 1992 film “Chaplin.”
“I was young and crazy and it would have put me under the impression that I was on the right track,” said Downey, who was 28 years old at the time of his first Oscar nomination.
Downey eventually lost to Al Pacino, who won the Academy Award for his role as Lt. Col. Frank Slade in “Scent of a Woman.”
Downey was later nominated at the 2009 Oscars for his supporting role in “Tropic Thunder” although he lost to the late Heath Ledger, who starred as the Joker in the iconic superhero film “The Dark Knight.”
Downey, in an interview with British GQ back in 2010, predicted he’d eventually win an Academy Award.
“As long as I stick around, I’m going to end up with a bunch of them anyway as they’re going to run out of people to give them to,” he said.
“And I’m probably going to win it one year when someone else deserves to win it. Why? Because it’s my time. And that’s the way shit works around here. I’m just an uptight mutt at the top of his game.”
He told the magazine at the time that there’s “no physical pain in not winning something.”
“There is psychological turmoil and lack of understanding, but what is really going on here? I can lie and pretend I worry but I don’t care. Honestly,” he said.
“There was a time when I thought the only way out of hell was to win a certain type of award. And then I thought, ‘What a pitiful existence.’”
The actor was recently nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”
Downey, on Wednesday, said he was “just so happy” for all of the 13 nominations for “Oppenheimer” at the Academy Awards and congratulated his co-star Emily Blunt on her first Oscar nom.
You can check out more of Downey’s interview on “The View” below.
