Robert Downey Jr. on Why He Chose ‘Oppenheimer’ After MCU (Exclusive)

question for you all were you familiar with J Robert Oppenheimer before signing on to do this project no I had kind of like a Wikipedia level knowledge of the of the events I guess and you um I fancy myself a bit of a student of this uh period in time I thought it was great the way that uh Chris chose expertly to cast this guy it's a it's literally a generation defining performance and it's crazy too that you took all those swings at doing other projects with them and they all kind of come together in this one big partnership and one of the things I know that Chris says is that like it or not J Robert Oppenheimer was the most important person who ever lived yeah you agree with that it's a good tagline isn't it um uh um I think you know what happened in 45 completely changed history complete changed the world and we live in the shadow of what happened in 45 now um and people choose to think about it or not so I think in those terms for sure for sure you two in the film have a complex relationship his fault how would you describe it uh Chris talked um um Mozart and salieri and I think that was just a great shorthand yeah and um even just by the time I was on set seeing how Killian had embodied this character to the point where you go like I feel like I'm practically with the guy you can't help but feel a little bit Iced Out by it now killing is so warm and nice and inviting but then we'd roll and I'd feel like he was looking through me like I didn't exist and I was like that sucks and I can only imagine there was a lot of people who felt that way um Louis dross was in a position to do something about it I don't know how culpable he was for that but um it is a story of how small imagine slights between important people can have big impacts yeah and that's the beauty of the story that's you know these these this tiny story in one way between these two men out of this ginormous story about about you know the life and death and you say too that this is not meant to be a history lesson for the audience and no no but I do think it may provoke people to go and read about this if they so wish you know what I mean um but no it's it's it's it's entertaining and thrilling uh um but I do think it will be very thought-poking as well and there's an intensity to this as well one of the other things Chris Nolan has said too is noted is that audiences have left the theater just gutted and devastated with the project like this there is a Fear Factor I saw it I mean associated with it where you do walk out of there and you're a little bit well actually a lot bit frightened yeah I love that though man do you if a piece of art can like alter your emotions and kind of mess you up I mean that's that's something profound I think part of it too is and I think Chris is obviously just a master Storyteller but to achieve what Oppenheimer did and to be that conflicted about it but to be so praised for it that's why there's themes in this film about being held up in this rarified air for something that you're so conflicted about and I think we can I think we can feel that about I mean we'll just say it the way your life is changing now is you're going to be in front of this huge film and we always have two sets of feelings one is that's great and maybe and I'll have even more opportunity Scrolls the other is what about my privacy and this and that and writ large as it affected the planet I think every time they were giving them a round of applause and stomping their feet he felt a little bit awful yeah yeah absolutely what do you two hope that the audience takes away well like I said earlier I think it asks the biggest hugest most complex kind of questions the most profound kind of uh ethical and moral and moral questions but at the same time it is so thrilling because you're on the ride guess what I mean it kind of grabs you by the neck from the from the first frame and you're kind of in it yeah you know and I and it also kind of sometimes has a kind of horror elements too did you feel that yeah you know you look in your eyes sometimes well yeah like oh you know what what's about to go down yeah and where is he about to take me yeah and do I want to go I mean as I'm sitting here watching you know so it has so many different components to it and it's entertaining in so many different ways and again challenging what I love about these films the sorts of films that Chris makes is he presupposes that the audiences are smart which they are you know and he's he's done that all the way through with his films yeah I would say too that look we've been in this really odd thousand days of wondering even what the future of entertainment was going to be and this is a definitive statement that Cinema is moving forward while staying connected to its roots and there's a purest element to this but it is also every bit as cool and fun to ride as any genre movie you're going to see this summer for sure there was initially I didn't realize it was you excellent the hair the hairline like yeah yeah I heard that a few times and um I think more than anything it was things that Chris asked me to uh remove from my Approach rather than add on to so that was it I'm always down for getting Spartan and stripping things away it's not easy because I'm a little bit of a Mexican jumping bean by Nature but uh it was uh it was a gift and being able to do all these scenes with you as you carried this film as exceptionally as you did was just an honor dude well my question and I was reading too that you were Discerning about what your next role might be as you were just you know trying to decide what's it going to be and you kind of gave yourself like a year or so down time with your family but this really caught your eye yeah it just it it scared me I mean nowhere near as much as I'm sure when you first read this thing and go oh my God I have to do this whole thing because Chris just called um but anyway I got to I got to experience it it was also nice to have the pressure off I was like let this guy do the heavy lifting true um I come in hey I had like four days off I was just kind of you know antiquing around uh Santa Fe what have you been up to and he'd be like uh I want to run the lines are you an antique guy love it do you a little bit how do you know when something's good uh you know he you feel like you need it and by the way Santa Fe fantastic now he was also at all the locations where there was like you know 60 mile an hour winds and all that stuff I I hung out for the kind of pleasant the pleasant fair weather-wise I didn't antique I didn't do antiquing did he even know it was a verb actually did he bring you a gift did you bring him a little something yeah it's uh it's still being created foreign [Music]

Channel: extratv

Views: 914,239

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Id: oXT6NNrpFg8

Length: 7min 49sec (469 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 07 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/WeDriftEternal]

His agent said, "wanna do a Christopher Nolan movie?'. Yeah ok.

[u/HagbardCelineHere]

I bet it's because money can be exchanged for goods and services

[u/Civilwarland09]

That entire 10 minute long video did not answer that question. A decent interview, but why the clickbait title?

[u/sbdoroff]

RDJ uses some of that star power repeatedly throws credit and praise back to Cilian as the true star of the film. Dude shows he is a regular class act.

[u/IPreferPi314]

After reading American Prometheus, RDJ is a very interesting choice for Lewis Strauss. It's going to be his first villainous/antagonistic role since U.S. Marshals, I think.

[u/SirBattleTuna]

Because Dr. Dolittle floped that’s why.

[u/BlancoDelRio]

He chose Doolitle after MCU but I'm sure his publicist didn't like that headline

[u/mb_banga_]

Lol after dr dolittle **

[u/jomama823]

Didn’t he choose Dr. Doolittle first? Asking because, like most everyone else, I didn’t watch it.