While he may be the most popular star on the planet today, more than any other star by a long shot for playing the role of Tony Stark in the MCU, Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t always the poster boy of the world of cinema. In fact, he was the darkest dark horse in the industry that no one wanted to either talk about or do anything about.
Infamous for his legal offenses and drug abuse problems in the late ’80s and ’90s, the star made a complete turn for the better through sheer willpower alone to become one of the highest-grossing stars of all time. What helped him through this journey was martial arts, which he followed as a religious discipline, even when his master wanted to borderline maul him for his shortcomings.
How Robert Downey Jr’s Martial Arts Master Wanted To Harshly Punish Him For His Mistake
Everyone has a past, and it defines who we will become in the future to a certain extent, but if that past is as dark and troubled as Robert Downey Jr., then just hearing about it may give some people shivers. From endless drug abuse to debauchery and criminal offenses, the star’s past is something that makes everyone feel like there’s no redemption. But against those beliefs, when he decided to turn his life around, he did it with fiery determination, and succeeded, becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood along the way.
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What helped along the way was his association with martial arts, more specifically, Wing Chun in the process of rebuilding himself from the ground up. However, developing that discipline wasn’t an easy process to come by, especially when his teacher was American Wing Chun Master Eric Oram. In conversation with Men’s Journal, the master talked about how he came to know about the star’s past before he met him, which forced him to become harsher with him than any other, going so far as to threaten him. Oram said:
“When he first came to me, insurance companies wouldn’t bond him for movies; he couldn’t get roles, I told him if he didn’t show up to a lesson, I was going to chop off his toes and feed them back to him. One day he didn’t turn up, and I told him goodbye. Then he had a couple of producers call me and vouch for him, saying, ‘He was with us in a meeting; he didn’t have a phone. It’s our fault. Don’t cut his head off.’ He has committed himself to it ever since and turned his life around.”
Therefore, even through insurmountable odds, the star did his best to turn his life around, and when he did, he found himself at the top of the same industry that once scorned him.
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What’s Next For Robert Downey Jr.?
From the start till the end of MCU’s Phase Four, there has been nothing to say about Downey Jr.’s performance as Iron Man in the franchise other than one of a kind. He played the role so naturally that his face became synonymous with his character. And now after leaving that part of his life behind, the star looks ahead to the future.
After a well-deserved rest from acting, the star returned to the industry and did so with none other than legendary filmmaker Christopher Nolan in his recently released magnum opus Oppenheimer, where he plays the role of Lewis Strauss of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
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Iron Man, streaming on Disney+.
Source: Men’s Journal
