12) Robert Downey Jr.
I love Robert Downey Jr. in all his recent work, from Iron Man, to playing Iron Man in The Avengers, to Sherlock Holmes, to Iron Man 2, to Sherlock Holmes 2. I’m sure he’ll be great in Iron Man 3. But at this point I’m kind of thinking maybe it’d be good for him to branch out a little? I’m just tossing that out there. Because when stars like this start to seem like they’re just taking jobs for the money, like any relationship that seems like it’s going stale, qualities that once were charming and likeable become glaringly irritating and start to cause issues. So I’m still on the “maybe, maybe not terrible” page for RDJ, but the fact that he’s basically playing Tony Stark in every movie and every public appearance at this point is starting to irk me.
And yet again, that may be exactly what makes him so electric as Stark in his films. The overconfidence and brashness makes for a great character and enjoyable performance.
That goes for most, if not all of these examples. I suppose it’s fine, and part of the movie-going experience, that we are only able to imagine these less-than-perfect human beings as heroic characters in a sort of fantastical escapism. If they’re able to make us suspend our disbelief regarding their douchebaggery then that’s all to the good on a cinematic level. At the same time, is it fair to give celebrities or any public figure a free pass when they do horrible things just because they give us opportunities to forget our own miserable and often morally repugnant lives?
How does one deal with the impulse to want more Roman Polanski movies because The Ghost Writer was terrific even though he probably deserves significant jail time by all accounts? I don’t know. I think feeling bad about it is probably the most we can ask from ourselves. Hypocrisy is less work.