Robert Downey Jr. recently reflected on his career, leading him to name two of what he believe were his most important films. For most, Downey Jr. is synonymous with Toy Stark aka Iron Man of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, despite the role being arguably his most famous job, none of the MCU films cracked his “most important” list in the past 25 years.
Speaking to the New York Times, the actor said, “Honestly, the two most important films I’ve done in the last 25 years are The Shaggy Dog, because that was the film that got Disney saying they would insure me.” For those who need a refresher, The Shaggy Dog came out in 2006 and was a remake of the 1959 film. It saw Downey Jr. star opposite Tim Allen, Kristin Davis and Danny Glover and with a 26% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was considered a box office flop at that time.
Downey Jr. continued and said that, “The second most important film was Dolittle, because Dolittle was a two-and-a-half year wound of squandered opportunity. The stress it put on my missus as she rolled her sleeves up to her armpits to make it even serviceable enough to bring to market was shocking.” Dolittle came out in 2020 and was also considered a bomb at the box office. His wife Susan Downey was the co-producer of the film, which was developed by the couple’s production company, Team Downey Productions. The actor added, “After that point – what’s that phrase? Never let a good crisis go to waste. We had this reset of priorities and made some changes in who our closest business advisers were.”
Robert Downey Jr. stars in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, hitting theaters on July 21.
In case you missed it, Hayao Miyazaki’s How Do You Live? to be first Ghibli film shown in IMAX.
