It Sure Feels Good to Have Robert Downey Jr. Onscreen Again

This article was originally published on July 25, 2023. At the 2024 Oscars, for Robert Downey Jr. won the award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Oppenheimer.

Robert Downey Jr. is one of the most successful performers of the past couple of decades, having starred as Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes in two huge film franchises. But it does feel like it’s been a while since he’s had a deep, layered role of the kind that once marked him as a staggering acting talent. Now he’s back in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, playing Admiral Lewis Strauss, the businessman turned government official who locked horns with the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in the years following World War II. The director says that the push-pull between Oppenheimer and Strauss reminded him of the relationship between Mozart and Antonio Salieri in Amadeus.

And you could even say that Downey is the film’s second lead: The movie’s framing device interweaves Oppenheimer’s 1954 security-clearance hearing and Strauss’s 1959 Senate confirmation hearing, flashing back to show how the physicist’s growing concerns about the nuclear arms race set him on a collision course with the U.S. security apparatus. It turns out Downey himself, as a student of American history, was familiar with Strauss even before Nolan asked him to do the part. Maybe that’s why his performance, which goes from chummy to snakelike over the course of the film, is one of the movie’s most fascinating and riveting elements. Last month (before the SAG-AFTRA strike), we talked about what drew Downey to the role and what it was like working on Nolan’s film.

What were your initial conversations with Christopher Nolan about this project and this role?
He asked if I’d like to come over to his house and read a script. There is no version of an answer to that question that doesn’t start with a “y,” and I don’t mean “why” with a question mark. Then he asked me if I was at all familiar with the character or the subject matter. It has been a longtime contemplation, verging on obsession, of mine: mid-century Cold War and all the characters involved. I had a previous fair understanding of Strauss because I was fascinated with the mechanics of warfare, particularly in the Pacific theater in World War II. The first time I saw his name in print was regarding the proximity fuze and its development.

Then I challenged a little bit the Mozart-Salieri of it all. I said, “I’m not sure in some ways that Strauss isn’t a bit the hero here,” which kind of raised an eyebrow on Chris. I half-jokingly challenged him on whether Admiral Strauss hadn’t done everything that any patriotic American would’ve done. And he said, “Well, this will be a wonderful ongoing dialogue. So, will you do the film?” And he’s Chris Nolan, so he’s not asking your fricking agent.

So you knew beforehand about Strauss. How do you approach research and preparation? Obviously, there’s the guy on the page, there’s the historical record, but then there’s a certain amount of imaginative creative work you have to bring to it, I assume?
Technically it wasn’t really about what to add on; it was about what to remove so that aspect of all of us can emerge — a nose-to-the-grindstone public servant. Someone who is conservative for all the right reasons. One who has a very strong moral psychology, but also someone who is human and does not like to be slighted, does not like to be taken lightly, does not wish to be unnecessarily embarrassed, even if we’re in the presence of a genius.

In terms of stripping away, what wasn’t necessary?
In a time when there were a lot of dynamic figures, all kind of battling to be a voice of their generation and/or binding together to overcome the darkest forms of fascism, we still want to be thought of in a favorable light. Someone like Strauss really was the American Dream incarnate — putting himself through school, being an assistant to President Hoover. The many, many things he did were behind the scenes. It reminded me a little bit in a strange way of my wife’s experience working with me where she’s the one on the other side of the camera, making sure that Mr. Smartypants doesn’t blow himself up while he’s charming the chrome off the bumper in the parking lot.

Oftentimes Chris would just come in and say, “Robert, great. Now next time just do nothing.” I was like, “Nothing? Okay!” And sometimes that was the one he’d print. Sometimes he liked what happened in the takes before or after that. There was just this ongoing dialogue between a master filmmaker and someone who is open to a new experience. Sometimes — and I’m sure we can all relate to this — by the time you’re looking at the back nine, you’re in your mid- to late 50s, you’re wondering, How many more new experiences am I likely to have? And this was exactly that in practical terms, while still having all the fundamentals of making a film that you’re proud of.

I feel like Strauss in some ways has the broadest and most pronounced character arc in the movie. He seems to change more than just about anybody, at least in our eyes. 
I’ll take it. [Laughs] I mean, look, the arc is Oppenheimer’s. I was really pleased because in being Salieri to his Mozart, it’s cool to see what happens when there’s that turn and we’re finally in a position to make a statement and change the status of someone that you feel has wronged you. It’s a very dangerous threshold to cross. I think that as much as I admire Strauss for everything he did right, I think like many of us he’s also a cautionary tale.

In some ways, he becomes a symbol of the politicization of nuclear technology and science. There’s this push-pull between science and conscience and ego. I thought that was a fascinating note to end it on: These forces are going to keep fighting each other and we’re all going to get killed as a result.
It’s that thing when there is either too liberal or too conservative a disposition, it’s us, the citizens, that wind up paying the price for these frictions. Lewis — consciously or not, solely or not, maybe just as a sign of the times — succeeded in getting Oppenheimer canceled. Then, those who felt Oppenheimer was wronged waited for the perfect moment to cancel Strauss, right when he was about to be at the precipice of his life’s achievement. Obviously, Oppenheimer’s achievement was global. Strauss’s achievement had been personal. And still, to this day, many will never know all the earlier contributions that Admiral Strauss made that were significant and have made this a better, safer world. But there you have it, buddy. Nothing new under the sun.

Nolan told me that the actors really got into their roles. It sounds like it was very rewarding for him to put everybody in a room together and let them interact almost as their characters. Can you describe that vibe on set?
There’s a scene where Cillian is particularly haunted as it’s being understood that he may not have had all the data on the hydrogen bomb proliferating via espionage. And you’ve got Matthew Modine, you’ve got Josh Hartnett knocking it out of the park. You’ve got Cillian as our lead, really, really sticking to his guns and becoming more and more haunted, this iconic character. You’ve got David Krumholtz nailing it. And it seemed like an entire generation — actually, several generations of actors — were coming together at the top of their game. We all knew that this was a critical moment. And now that we’re talking about it and people are starting to see it and really feel affected by it, I go, “Wow, that was kind of a profound little film shoot we had. Turned out pretty darn well.”

The film is very dense; there’s a lot of information, a lot of characters. But it’s also very fast. It’s never boring. It’s almost like an action movie about people talking. Were you guys trying to accelerate or do things faster? Was that ever a concern?
No, because the crazy dichotomy is Nolan is not about control. He’s about experience. So you look down, there’s no marks on the floor. You wonder if you shouldn’t pace it up. And he says, “Don’t worry about that. That’s my problem. If I didn’t write it correctly, then it’s going to be a problem later.” I think sub-intentionally, some directors can burden the situation with their own neurosis, and that is not him.

What were your impressions of the final cut?
I’m experiencing it, of course, as a more than occasionally self-centered guy watching it: “Oh, there I am. Wait.” I was looking at Susan Downey quite a bit because she actually went to film school. And we were just having this kind of crazy ride together. I need to see it again. I have a feeling this is going to be like one of those yearly watch films. When they come on, you don’t change the channel. Or you want to share this with other folks. I intend to try to sneak into as many Imax theaters as I can over the summer and beyond, and just experience other people experiencing it.