Hollywood’s reformed star talks exclusively to Total Film
27/07/09 – Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr has revealed how a punch from a stuntman left him seeing stars on the set of his latest movie, Sherlock Holmes.
Speaking exclusively with influential UK movie mag Total Film, Downey Jr praised the physical nature of Guy Ritchie’s movie, admitting that he and co-star Jude Law, who plays Dr Watson, had “taken a bunch of bangs and expect more.”
Downey Jr also confessed that a mistake saw him being knocked out by a stuntman in a fight scene. He joked, “I met my dead grandparents and Davy Jones was there for a minute. It was my own fault. I didn’t block a punch. If he hadn’t held back, Jude would be holding my head now.”
With the latest interpretation of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle’s classic detective hitting cinemas across the UK on Boxing Day, the actor jokes that many people thought he was too old for the role, but 2008 hits Iron Man and Tropic Thunder sealed this career rehabilitation: “I had a hell of a summer last year. It’s made me much more viable to play a lead role that might have passed me.”
His on-screen partnership with Jude Law is winning plaudits from industry insiders, and Downey Jr is equally enthusiastic about their take on Holmes and Watson. “I think you’ll believe that the characters have known each other for a long time.” Confident of his abilities to make the character of Sherlock Holmes his own, Downey Jr states he’ll play the detective “better than he’s ever been played before!”
Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes tops the list of Total Film’s annual “The 10 Coolest Movies Being Made Right Now” list, which charts films currently in production. Downey Jr appears again in the top 10 thanks to Iron Man 2, while Christopher Nolan’s action-thriller Inception and Disney’s Tron 2.0 and Alice in Wonderland also make the list.
The full rundown features in the September issue of Total Film, on sale Thursday, 30th July with a coverprice of £3.90.
ENDS
To request a full version of the article, please contact email will.guyatt@futurenet.co.uk
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