Robert Downey Jr has criticised influencer culture and dismissed the idea that content creators can become “stars of the future” as “absolute horses***”.
In an appearance on the Conversations for our Daughters podcast, the Avengers star looked back on how fame and celebrity had changed since his childhood.
“In the late ’70s, early ’80s, dangerous though it was, there was this sense that the competition wasn’t so stiff that you shouldn’t even bother trying,” Downey Jr said. “Whereas nowadays, people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves.”
He said he didn’t necessarily view that shift “as a negative thing”, but that it created more of a challenge for younger generations to distinguish themselves beyond “a self-aggrandising kind of influencer type thing”.
“Hopefully the grosser part of our youth is going to say, ‘Yeah, but that’s not my thing. I want to go do something. I want to make something. I want to build something. I want to educate myself,’” he said.
“When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,’ I go, ‘I don’t know what world you’re living into, but I think that that is absolute horses***.’”
The Oppenheimer star also described seeing influencer culture affect his own family life, describing his 13-year-old son’s interest in gaming streams and viewer donations.
“He kind of got caught up in this whole influencer thing and next thing you know it’s like, ‘Hey, if you like the way I’m playing this video game, do you want to send me a donation?’” Downey Jr said of Exton Elias Downey.
“And really it becomes a religion. There’s something about the influencers today [that] are almost like the evangelical hucksters of the information age.”
However, Downey Jr acknowledged that many influencers had become integral to film promotion and that he had met some professionally who were “grounded, interesting, accomplished, cool people”.
Downey Jr also reflected on his own uneasy relationship with social media visibility and said he tried not to become “consumed” by internet culture.
“I try not to get too deep down any rabbit hole,” he said. “People say, ‘Robert, they just love it when you’re just kind of seemingly off the cuff and they’re getting a glimpse into your life.’
“And I go, ‘But yeah, but I’d be manufacturing that aspect for them. So it’s BS.’”
Downey Jr will next be seen in Avengers: Doomsday, where he is playing the antagonist Doctor Doom, returning seven years after Avengers: Endgame, which saw him leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The bumper cast also features several other returning stars such as Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Anthony Mackie (Falcon/Captain America), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Letitia Wright (Black Panther’s Shuri).
Avengers: Doomsday will also bring back several X-Men stars, including Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, James Marsden, and Rebecca Romijn.
