But letâs start at the beginning.
Last weekend I attended the international press day for âThe Soloistâ as a reporter for our partner website Omelete. If you havenât heard of the film yet, itâs directed by Joe Wrightâs (âPride and Prejudiceâ, âAtonementâ) and it stars Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr., and Catherine Keener. Also, itâs based on a true story. Hereâs the synopsis:
Journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a former classical music prodigy, playing his violin on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both their lives.
Anyway, while I already posted everything that Robert said about âIron Man 2â a few days ago, below youâll find the entire interview where we not only talk about âIM2â, but âSherlock Holmesâ, âThe Soloistâ, and a lot of other stuff. If youâre a fan of Robertâs, I promise you this is a great interview and one youâll enjoy.
As always, you can either read the transcript below or listen to the audio by clicking here. Finally, if youâd like to watch some clips from âThe Soloistâ click here.
Can I start the interview with nice to see you again as Mr. Stark?
I hope you donât mind.
Yeah.
If you donât mind me also asking, Jon has been Twittering the whole time on-set.
What is that like for you? Do you know that heâs doing this?
How do you feel in your career nowadays? You know with the âIron Man 2â shooting, this movie coming outâ¦does it feel?
Okay. Does it feel good to be you again?
Do you look at your face in the window in the morning and say âwow, itâs me!â?
So people are thinking too much of you?
Hell, no. No, no. then Iâll say âhold on a damn minuteâ and Iâll likeâ¦I donât know. Drink a little water and then Iâll say âIâm almost doneâ. And then Iâll stop and I will say on the way back, Iâll be driving my car home from the studio or whatever blowing a cigar and listening to Peter Frampton and Iâll sayâ¦
Not Beethoven?
I listen to Beethoven, too, and Iâll say âI cannot believe what a fantastic life I have. What a fantastic day I had. What a nice evening it is.â
When five years ago you were saying âall my friends are making $20 million a movie and Iâm the only one whoâs not there yetâ.
Right.
You said that maybe five years ago. What about now?
Yeah, five years ago I was still thinking that there was something about that money and that influence that was going to make or change anything, so I was still attached to the idea that somehow outside circumstances were going to make me feel okay.
But now thatâs sort of possibly changed withâ¦
That man is dead. (laughter)
Talk a little bit more about âIron Manâ because last time we saw each other you hadnât even started yet and so now youâve started.
Yeah.
How much fun is it?
Itâs so fun. Day one Iâm doing a Senate hearing where the government is saying the Iron Man tech needs to be turned over to the Senator and the Senator is Gary Shandling. And we had this fantastic day that was somehow this controlled chaos of a Senate hearing where I keep interrupting them and dah dah dah. And Iâve never been in a sequel and itâs very daunting because I feel the expectation of the millions of people who watched it and enjoyed it and told me that it was a little different than your usual genre picture and that they expected us to not screw it up. So I actually have taken âIron Man 2â probably more seriously than any movie Iâve ever done, which is appropriately ridiculous for Hollywood.
The last time you said the suit was very uncomfortable?
Yes everythingâ¦.
â¦and you watched through the mask this time?
Everything has been improved. Everything is ergonomic and the story is incredibly risky and artistic for a big genre movie.
In which way risky?
The set pieces have to do with things that arenât your typical like bad guy conflict. The relationships are very complex and hilarious. The motivations Tony has and why he turns around and does things has completely to do with his own internal processes and it really is, I think, as much as we tried to in the first one really see behind the façade of this kind of storytelling. We really, I think, leaving ourselves open toâ¦weâre kind of trying to tell a story about how a dysfunctional family saves life on Earth as we know it.
And also, for this film you have Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell. You have an insane cast.
Itâs huge.
Could you talk about working with Mickey?
I could if we shot together. Iâve seen his stuff and it is literally remarkable. Literally remarkable. Heâs so good. And heâs formidable and heâs very much reminding me of that kind of charming, confident guy that we know. Sam Rockwell, on the first day of shooting I was like âif this guy thinks heâs going to be funnier and cooler than me (laughter) and it was a photo-finish. Scarlett Johansson, amazing. Don Cheadle is just rocking it.
Donât you feel you are working too much? I think the past two out of three interviews you said at the roundtable, I need to take a vacation. Thatâs my next movie and then Iâm going to take a break. Itâs not going to happen right?
Yeah, it is.
When?
After âIron Man 2â.
Do you feel youâre working too much or you donât feel you workingâ¦?
I thought about it this morning because the truth is I need to be kept in check. I need a system of controls. Now, sometimes that system of controls is free-time like when I pull the Misses and we went to the Bahamas and did nothing for two weeks, but even then I knew where we were and what we were doing. Iâm not one of those people whoâs like oh this girl needs a lot of structure or sheâs going to go to the wolves. Thatâs not the story. I just reallyâ¦.Iâll never be here again. Iâll never be 44 years old making a sequel, making a thing this and that, and so Iâm really kind of just running on gratitude right now.
You just celebrated two weeks ago your birthday, correct?
Yes.
So how did you celebrate it?
Whatâd I do? I had the flu.
Can I ask you about âSoloistâ, sorry?
I wish you would.
Yes. What was it about this one then, I mean youâre doing this in the middle of these other sort of role different from this, very different films. Was it Joe Wright? Was itâ¦what drew you in?
It was Joe and it was Jamie and I was in Hawaii doing âTropic Thunderâ in a very different position than I am right now going like âwhat do they think Iâm going to do? I just played a journalist.â And there was something about Gary Foster and Joe Wright flying there and really being passionate about the way they were going to do it as much as the story they were telling. And I was on this hugeâ¦you couldnât be any broader or bigger than âTropic Thunderâ, so the idea of really switching gears and doing something where Joe said he wanted me there every day. He wanted me there working with the LAMP members. He kept telling me the movie is not about you. The movie has nothing to do with you. The movie is about Jamie and the movieâs about these people and I was like âwell then what the fuck do you want me there for?â Heâs be like âRobert, just observeâ. I was like âOh God, this guy is so artsy.â And it turned into this incredibly wonderfully humiliating three months on skid row, which is probably exactly what I needed.
What was that like working with those people, Robert?
Those people are us, so it was like working with us in very trying circumstances. I guess kind of likeâ¦the only way I can describe it is what was it like having dinner with a family during the siege on Stalingrad whatever, you know? The human nature comes forth and people strive and crave to justâ¦we all just want to be connected to each other and be like each other, which we are. And I was surprised that my street cred on Skid Row was pretty high due to myâ¦.
Was that good or bad?
It was great.
For the right reasons or the wrong reasons?
Well, right/wrong whatever. It never occurred to me that A. that people would be like âDude, I was in county jail with youâ and I was like âfuck dude I remember you!â and people are seeing that so I wasnât trying like trying to milk that but it was just part of what was going on. So I didnât feel all that ill at ease. I guess the challenge again was I was asked to on the dawn of my hostile overt super resurrection on a world stage of who cares to go back to this very basic fundamental where I started and where I always start which is this is how we do it. This is a process. This is about growing and learning and experiencing each other. This is about a bunch of people around a table listening to each other and talking to each other and then how do we turn that into a piece of film to entertainment. Well, hopefully well.
Do you learn some things during this movie? Jamie said he learned a lot about himself and he went through therapy for âThe Soloistâ. I mean, youâve been through a lot over the past 20 years soâ¦
Yeah, I was already in therapy.
I guess you donât need that, but did you learn something from yourself doing that shoot?
You know what? As a matter of fact, I did. I realized primarily that I have a lot more space and time and energy and patience and ability than I give myself credit for insomuch as I would be on my feet for 12 hours and then I would be busy at lunchtime. Whereas usually you have these little breaks and you go back and forth, but I was essentially a crew member. So the part of me that always felt like God Iâm glad I donât have a âreal jobâ because I couldnât hack it, I had as real a job as anybody who was working on the loading dock for three months because I was always in motion. I was always asked to go over and talk to this person about what we were going to do for this unscripted piece of interview thatâs going on for the next thing. I was asked to go walk where Steve was going to walk and work out something with the camera. So I actually got an amazing education and then later on I also really did with âSherlock Holmesâ too. Thereâs something about having âIron Manâ come out and be a gynormous hit that too a certain pressure off the performance and the last thing I think about anymore is my performance and the technical ins and outs of that. Iâm very much more objective now and I know that that plate is spinning and if it starts to wobble I just go back to it and go like that, but Iâm very much outside the realm of my own self-conscious concerns because thereâs so many more interesting things going on than me in front of a camera. Thereâs everything thatâs happening on the set and all the littleâ¦.
How do you consume yourself with your roles? Like Steve gets really consumed with his work? How is that for you as an actor?
Yeah. Well, strangely the most consuming role, on a certain level, was âTropic Thunderâ, because I was wearing a mask it was gestalt therapy. Whatever it was, it was just this massive catharsis for some reason. And then after that I was like âoh well, now that space is empty.â All this kind of venom, rage, discomfort and hiding behind things stuff. I feel that kind of went away. And then I went and did âSherlock Holmesâ which was technically really difficult and period, but I am kicking ass for 2-1/2 hours and all this stuff Iâve been learning for five years suddenly Iâm like co-choreographing with these veteran stunt guys and bad-asses. And Iâm in there having this just meat eating, man slaughtering competition with these guys and then at the same time playing a very reserved Brit and that to me was a massive education and just a process, but it kind of started with âThe Soloistâ and just being asked to escape myself. Escape myself and observe my environment.
So do you think that a movie like this could be seen as itâs romanticizing truth or do you think itâs realistic?
I think it could be seen a lot of different ways. I think it could be seen as minimalizing and Hollywoodizing huge issues. I think it could be saying that poverty and mental illness are a black problem because weâre in Skid Row. I mean thereâs a lot of ways that this film could beâ¦
How do you see it?
I see it as all of the above. Itâs everything thatâs good about it and itâs everything it missed, you know?
What about playing the guy thatâs next to a person that can be a train wreck or can go very wrong in life?
Iâve been that train wreck and Iâve been that person next to that person who could be a train wreck. Itâs just, you know, itâs what it is.
You have to have some inner strength to come out. Itâs notâ¦
Yeah, yeah but who doesnât? I think thatâs the thing. I mean I think âThe Soloistâ is interesting in that it talks about massive conflicts with self and in a normal state of being and with the world in a chaotic state of being. Itâs such a simple story. I am observing and Iâm in denial of my conflict and I am projecting and I am painfully aware of my conflict while I am just trying to keep everything going and the only time Iâm okay is when Iâm connected with my music, and I think Steve being able to see that in Nathaniel and me being able to participate and watch this movie I go, âoh I kind of get what this is about, you know?â.
How much as the Misses called her? Because the last five years you seem to be a changed man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hereâs the thing, she didnât change me at all. She just gave me an ultimatum at a certain point. And errâ¦did she change me? I think what it was is we both changed a lot and turned into this thing which is this justâ¦we are a 300 year old couple. I mean I look at her and I go âeither youâre putting me in the ground or Iâm putting you in the ground unless we go in a car accident. In which case, someone else is putting us both in the groundâ.
Which is the best.
Itâs the best. Yeah, what changed was I came to believe that she and I together were definitely going to be better than me alone or me and anybody else, and I just had like sign it off. You know sometimes youâre like itâs go time by end of business day today you have to make this life-changing decision and itâs irreversible. No itâs not because you can always screw it up and you can always intervene on it if you want to subvert it in some lousy way, but I prefer to remain optimistic. Iâm pretty sure weâre going to go the distance. But the thing is she insists that she has never tried to make me change anything just because it just makes me mad.
Thereâs a lot of people in your life that had a huge impact like your son Nathanielâs life.
Yes. What?
Yes, thereâs a lot of people in your life that have a huge input on you?
Yes, you want their names?
Sure.
One of them is a writer. I canât say what our relationship is but heâs a mentor to me. One of them is, of course, my dad. Iâve been watching Putney Swope lately because now itâs 2010 I have a touch-screen Hewlett Packard computer thing thatâs like this big and I touch something and Putney Swope starts playing on it. So people come up and go âcome look at thisâ, so Iâm re-establishing my relationship with my dad through this film and through talking to him. Pablo Ferro, who was a fantasticâ¦.he did like all theâwhat would you call itâwhen they have like opening credits for movies and things slide inâ¦an optical effects guy. He was this super artist who people would say like reinvented the wheel in the 70âs and stuff with movies. He was a friend of my dadâs. Hal Ashby. Thereâs just so many people. James Woods when I was working with him. Iâll never ever, ever forget that. George C. Scott working with him was life changing. Richard Attenbough.
What about yourself?
â¦hugely influenced me.
What about yourself? Are you helping kids or did you go give the pep talks to some 20 year old actors telling them donât screw up?
Please.
Why?
Because I donât want to beâ¦Iâm not that poster boy. Let me put it this way: Iâm into interacting with people but once I startâ¦.Iâm a martial artist. And so the closest thing I have to a religious code is the Wing Chun/Chou Lin tradition. And the first rule is a true warrior does not take up causes. And I hate to say that in the midst of whatâs the message of âThe Soloistâ and are you for theâ¦.or whatever some of the stuff that happens, or itâs so in in Hollywood to say my thing is to Health the Bay or mine is this or that or dah, dah, dah. And until further notice, until I change religionsânot that itâs religionâbut I just believe that warrior code. I think itâs really important that what you do is get your side of the street as clean as you can make it. Thatâs the only thing I can do that will have any resounding effect. But going out and spouting stuff, then Iâm in politics and then I have a cause and then I am doomed. I swear to God Iâm doomed. If you ever see me coming up with a cause, you bite me in the ass!
But youâre the martial artist. That would be dangerous.
Oh my God in five years Iâll just take out this whole room.
Jamie described you as someone whoâs very together. Is that how you see yourself?
Um-hum. Yup, until further notice.
Can I ask whatâs in the bag?
Well, letâs go through this. Wallet. Parasites, lilac water, Blackberry. Jude Law got me a really expensive phone.Are you twitting?No. Lifeospheric age blocker. Cigar lighter. Cigar. None of your business. (laughter)
I have actually a quick question. Are you already thinking about Comic-Con becauseâ¦
Goddamn right I am.
Do you know if you and Jon are planning anything cool?
Yes, what do you think?