Robert Downey Jr. recalls the intense preparation he put in to play screen legend Charlie Chaplin for his Oscar-nominated 1992 role in Chaplin.
Summary SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Robert Downey Jr. recalls the intense prep work he did for his Oscar-nominated role as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin. Released in 1992, Chaplin told the life story of the legendary silent movie star, with Downey the controversial choice to play Chaplin himself. Despite the doubters, Downey went on to receive acclaim for his performance as the greatest of silent movie clowns, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actor .
As Downey did pre-strike publicity rounds for the just-released Oppenheimer, the actor had occasion to film a segment for Vanity Fair breaking down his greatest roles, including his performance as Chaplin. As Downey detailed, his prep work for Chaplin included getting together with some aging show-biz veterans who had connections to the old music hall scene where Chaplin first gained stardom, and also saw him going to great lengths to exactly mimic Chaplin’s performances.
Chaplin was an absolute gift and a real bear of a challenge for someone who was 25 when I started prepping to do it. But there were all these people that were still around, just barely still around like Johnny Hutch who came from, "The Benny Hill Show,” and he knew the guy who'd really done these choreographed things at the Karno Theater with Chaplin. So he actually had access to some of the books of really what the choreography was for some of this stuff.
Downey’s Chaplin Performance Paved The Way For Iron Man Downey had big roles before he took on Chaplin, including featured parts in movies like Less Than Zero, Air America and Soapdish, but Charlie Chaplin marked his first truly significant leading role, and it garnered him an Oscar nod.
That star charisma would have only a few sporadic chances to show up again for Downey in the years after Chaplin, most notably in 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, before receiving its ultimate affirmation in 2008’s Iron Man. Downey’s performance as Tony Stark in that film and subsequent MCU movies not only vaulted him onto the A-list, it established him as a screen legend in his own right.
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