Fresh off winning a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr. took home the award for best actor in a supporting role at the BAFTAs on Sunday.
During his acceptance speech, Downey Jr. reflected on his career and jokingly thanked Christopher Nolan for rescuing his post-Iron Man credibility.
"When I was 42, I did two films for Guy Ritchie and learned how to make big Hollywood movies with a civil British flare. I then played a guy named Tony in the MCU for about 12 years," he shared. “And then recently, that dude Chris Nolan suggested I attempt an understated approach as a last-ditch effort to perhaps resurrect my dwindling credibility. So I share this with my fellow nominees, this has been an exceptional year.”
All jokes aside, Downey Jr. has never shied away from defending the quality of his MCU catalog. Back in January, the actor claimed some of his “best work” went unnoticed because of the superhero genre.
“I felt so exposed after being in the cocoon of Marvel, where I think I did some of the best work I will ever do, but it went a little bit unnoticed because of the genre,” Downey Jr. told Rob Lowe on the latter's podcast.
Downey Jr. continued by crediting Nolan with giving his post-MCU career a boost.
“In a way, I did myself a favor, because the rug was pulled so definitively out from underneath me and all the things that I was leaning on as opposed to what my understanding of confidence and security was, boy did they evaporate," he explained. "And it rendered me teachable. And the crazy thing is they say, ‘When the student is ready, the [Christopher] Nolan will come.’ I mean, ‘the teacher will come.’ And that’s what happened."
