Dark Side of the 90's Season3 Episode 4

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Dark Side of the 90's Season3 Episode 4
Transcript
00:00Robert Downey Jr.'s 2008 portrayal of Iron Man helps kickstart Marvel's $3 billion cinematic
00:15universe.
00:16He's one of those actors that there's an extra sprinkling of something special.
00:26But in the 90s, the actor has more in common with the superhero's rich, out-of-control
00:31alter-ego.
00:32Robert's grown up in the public eye, and Tony Stark, he's a guy who's also grown up in the
00:37public eye.
00:45You've got all these gifts, but you're taking heroin.
00:49Downey's addictions to drugs and alcohol nearly cost him everything.
00:54As far as Hollywood is concerned, he's toast.
00:57Even his life.
00:58It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth, and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like
01:02the taste of the gun metal.
01:24I had a really serious, sick love affair with cocaine.
01:39And like a friend of mine who put it behind him said, he calls cocaine the lady.
01:45In July of 2000, NBC News ventures inside the California State Prison Center, where
01:50Charles Manson is locked up.
01:52To interview an equally famous prisoner, 35-year-old Robert Downey Jr.
01:57And he said the only way you can respect the lady is to stop seeing her altogether.
02:04Downey, inmate number P50522, is 12 months into his three-year sentence for a litany
02:10of drug offenses, including the possession of heroin and cocaine.
02:15And that was always difficult to me, because breaking up is hard to do.
02:19Not even prison will split up Downey and the lady.
02:23But when he and drugs finally do call it quits, he will embark on one of Hollywood's most
02:27blockbuster comebacks, finally achieving the professional acclaim that seemed his birthright.
02:34And the Oscar goes to Robert Downey Jr.
02:41Born in Manhattan in April of 1965, Downey Jr.'s mother, Elsie, is an actress.
02:50And his father, Robert Downey Sr., an avant-garde independent filmmaker.
02:57It's in one of his father's experimental films that five-year-old Jr. gets his first acting role.
03:03His first entrepreneur performance was in a film called Pound.
03:06It kind of sums up, I think, his dad's slightly experimental background in that it was a dog
03:10pound, but everyone was human, so everyone was playing different dogs.
03:14Next morning we go upstairs, there's no more furniture, the roof's gone.
03:18His dad kind of put him in this film as a puppy.
03:21That tornado scared me so much, it made my hair disappear.
03:24His first line was, have you got any hair on your balls?
03:27Have any hair on your balls?
03:29I don't know if you're allowed to say that on Vice.
03:34My name is Ben Falk.
03:35I'm an entertainment journalist and film writer, and I'm also the author of Robert Downey Jr.
03:39The Fall and Rise of the Comeback Kid.
03:44With his mom and dad a part of New York's artsy 1960s counterculture scene, Downey Jr.
03:51is there to witness it all.
03:53He was just absorbing all this stuff in, and when I say absorbing all that stuff in, I
03:58mean like literally sucking in the pot smoke because drugs were being done at home.
04:08Downey Jr. says he was just a little kid when his father first offers him a chance
04:12to smoke marijuana.
04:14His dad famously gave him his first joint.
04:18His dad was like, yeah, take this, who cares?
04:20It's from the garden, it's fine.
04:22The sort of story changes, like sometimes it's six, sometimes it's eight, sometimes
04:27it's seven, but certainly around six, seven, eight, he was already smoking pot.
04:35I'm not a trained psychologist, but it was kind of inevitable, I think, actually, that
04:38he'd end up getting embroiled in that world because it was normalized right from the very
04:43beginning.
04:44An actual trained doctor and addiction specialist says nothing is inevitable, but being exposed
04:50to drugs at an early age can be problematic.
04:55If you give a child alcohol or weed, you can throw the switch on the predisposed very
05:05easily.
05:06My name is Dr. Drew Pinsky.
05:10In the 90s, I was doing a radio show called Loveline, but really the vast majority of
05:15my time was spent running a large addiction recovery program in a psychiatric hospital.
05:22If you're exposed young, your risk of addiction, if you have the genetic background, begins
05:27to skyrocket.
05:30Downey Jr.'s genetic background comes through his father, a lifelong addict.
05:35Downey Sr.'s drug issues contribute to a divorce in 1978.
05:40After his dad relocates to Los Angeles, Downey Jr. follows him out to Hollywood.
05:45Robert Downey Jr. went to Santa Monica High School.
05:49I'm Michael Fleeman, and in the 1990s, I was an entertainment reporter.
05:54It's a public school, Santa Monica, west side of Los Angeles, that had so many famous young
06:02actors who would go on to become huge.
06:05Some of Downey's classmates include Rob Lowe, Charlie Sheen, and Sean Penn.
06:12Santa Monica High had a lot of drug kind of culture.
06:17There was definitely coke kicking about.
06:19At 17, Downey drops out of high school to pursue acting.
06:23Within a year, he lands his first big role, playing a nasty kid named Lee in the movie
06:28Firstborn.
06:30Also in the movie is future star of Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker.
06:36Downey and Parker are soon dating.
06:39She was this cool, very focused actress, and he was pretty much the opposite.
06:45The relationship happened really quickly.
06:47It kind of spiraled really, really fast into being a quite serious relationship.
06:52While dating Parker, Downey lands another mean kid role in Weird Science.
06:56Rumor has it there's a big white sale going on at the town hall.
07:03The movie's directed by John Hughes, the man responsible for Brad Pack movies like The
07:08Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.
07:11Even though he was in a John Hughes film, Downey, I don't think you could ever call him
07:14part of the Brad Pack.
07:16He wasn't kind of one of the main body of that group.
07:20After Weird Science, Downey gets hired by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels,
07:24who, after quitting the show in 1980, returns to run SNL five years later.
07:30Lorne Michaels was trying to resurrect Saturday Night Live, and his idea was let's bring in
07:37a load of young people because we need to bring in some fresh, new blood.
07:43One aspect of working on SNL lives on from the heyday of Belushi and Chase.
07:48Just the sheer kind of grind of what Saturday Night Live is.
07:52It being crazy and drugs kicking around, we're still there.
07:57Downey fully embraces that legacy and is out most nights enjoying New York's drug-fueled
08:03club scene.
08:05Everybody knew he was part of a fast-living crowd.
08:10Everybody knew he was in the party scene.
08:13But there was never a sense that it had gotten out of control.
08:16He didn't miss work.
08:18Despite his work ethic, the 11th season of Saturday Night Live is considered one of the
08:22weakest in the show's 50-year history.
08:25And Downey, like many others, is not invited back for another season.
08:29Ow!
08:30Ow!
08:31No, no, no, no, no!
08:33Hey!
08:34Hey!
08:35It will take two years before Downey lands what many consider his breakout role.
08:39Check me out.
08:40I'm going to make a serious comeback.
08:41Great!
08:43Less Than Zero
08:45A big role for Robert Downey Jr. was playing this character, Julian, who is a drug addict
08:51who, by the end of the film, goes through an awful lot of horrible stuff in pursuit
08:55of drugs and because of drugs.
08:57I genuinely think it's one of the best films that he made.
09:00Fresh from the office.
09:01Not here!
09:03We talked about this.
09:04Less Than Zero shows his best qualities.
09:07It shows a scene-stealing actor who, every time he's on screen, your eyes are magnetically
09:13drawn to him.
09:14Always a pleasure.
09:16And particularly when he's going through that kind of pain, you really feel that pain right
09:20down to your marrow.
09:22Looking back, it's easy to question whether Downey's performance as Julian is a case of
09:26life imitating art or the other way around.
09:30He would sort of say that he wasn't experientially performing that role, but I think a lot of
09:36people who watched that film would say otherwise.
09:38All you have to do is relax.
09:39I'm going to pay you back.
09:40All you need to do is trust me.
09:41I don't want to trust you, Julian.
09:43I just want my 50K, all right?
09:46He certainly channeled a lot of his life and his demons into that role.
09:52Julian in Less Than Zero is what Robert Downey Jr. was about to become.
09:58F*** that.
10:02In the late 80s, Robert Downey Jr.'s compelling performance as a desperate drug addict in
10:08Less Than Zero makes him one of Hollywood's most talked about young actors.
10:13But there's one person who knows the line between Downey acting like a drug addict and
10:17being one is more than just blurred.
10:20Downey's manager, Lori Rodkin, forces him to take his first trip to rehab.
10:25But Rodkin learns no good deed goes unpunished.
10:29Downey pushes her out while clinging to his drug habit.
10:33Your survival system is taken over by the pursuit of a chemical.
10:38It's extremely powerful and it distorts everything else.
10:43Thinking, emotions, interpersonal conduct, it distorts all that and serves the one God
10:50of pursuing the substance.
10:53But at this point, Downey's substance abuse has yet to interfere with his onscreen performances.
10:59Anything, anywhere, anytime.
11:01That's our motto.
11:02Well, it would be if we actually existed.
11:04That's right.
11:05Downey opens the 90s by being cast in the action comedy Air America alongside another
11:10actor with a history of addiction, Mel Gibson.
11:18Like Downey, Gibson starts drinking young and by the time of Air America, Gibson already
11:22has a DUI in Canada.
11:27Mel Gibson had some issues in terms of substance addiction and stuff like that.
11:32And so I think actually there's a slight kind of older brother, younger brother relationship
11:38there.
11:39I think Robert Downey Jr. sees a lot of himself in Mel Gibson.
11:43During shooting, Downey and Gibson grow into real world friends, not drinking buddies.
11:49When he shot initially with Mel back for Air America, he was clean.
11:53Why are they shooting at us?
11:55Because they're unfriendly.
11:56Why is everyone so unfriendly?
11:57Well, they haven't gotten to know us yet.
11:59You know, he was actually on one of his kind of dry runs.
12:02But that ends after Air America wraps.
12:06Downey is soon back out to late nights of drug-induced partying, which now includes
12:10not just snorting, but also smoking cocaine.
12:16He was someone who was able to kind of have this incredible constitution and just being
12:22out at the China Club one night, being out at the Roxbury another night, being out at
12:26the Hollywood Canteen the next night, and then still managing to work the next day,
12:31which is remarkable, actually.
12:33There seem to be very few people that can do that, maybe him and Keith Richards.
12:38But Downey's drugs and rock and roll lifestyle is taking its toll on his relationship with
12:42Sarah Jessica Parker.
12:44I think what was strange as well about this relationship between Downey and Parker was
12:49that she was the most straight-laced person you could ever imagine.
12:53The idea of drugs for Sarah Jessica Parker was just completely anathema, like that wasn't
12:57part of her life.
12:59Parker's career is going strong, having demonstrated her comedic skills playing opposite Steve
13:03Martin in the romantic comedy L.A. Story.
13:08But her real-life romance with the hard-partying Downey is fast becoming the kind of L.A. Story
13:13that ends badly for the sober side of the couple.
13:17She deeply, deeply loved him.
13:20You could sense they were going to get married at some point, until the drugs kind of broke
13:23it apart.
13:25I think that's where partners of his have thought.
13:28They've thought that they can fix him.
13:30They've thought that this is someone that he's ready to change.
13:34You can't save an addict.
13:35You can't.
13:36And when you're with somebody, everybody wants them to get better, wants to do something
13:41to help them.
13:42It's very, very painful.
13:44The family, the loved ones, suffer more than the patient, because the patient's loaded.
13:49In 1991, after seven years together, Parker breaks it off with Downey.
13:55She tried, and she tried, and she tried, and there was lying, and there was apologies,
13:59and all this kind of stuff, and eventually just living with someone with that disease
14:05is just proved too much for her.
14:09Less than a year after the breakup, Downey starts dating someone who can keep up with
14:14his appetite for alcohol and hard drugs, singer-actress Deborah Falconer.
14:20Deborah had some of her own issues, and they were enjoying the nightlife and the kind of
14:25partying aspect of Hollywood, too.
14:28They met.
14:29They fell in love very, very quickly, and within just after a month, actually, they
14:34were married.
14:36At the same time, Downey's just wrapping up filming the role that will define him as an
14:40actor for decades.
14:41You can't be chaplain.
14:44Downey's total embodiment of Charlie Chaplin mesmerizes audiences, along with fellow actors
14:49and directors.
14:50I loved him in Chaplin.
14:52He's so there and present and in the moment.
14:55You play tennis with a good player, you're going to play better.
15:00Some actors pick up a script, they read the lines that they're supposed to say, and nine
15:08times out of ten, they'll do similar things with the words, with the lines, with the intention.
15:15When Robert Downey Jr. gave you a line reading, it was like more different than anybody ever
15:23would have approached it, you know?
15:26Both Michael Schultz and Gail O'Grady will not work with Downey until years later on
15:30the TV series Ally McBeal, but like the rest of Hollywood in 1992, they're witnessing the
15:36rise of a major talent, one the industry recognizes at the 65th Academy Awards.
15:42Best actor nominee for his brilliant work in Chaplin, Robert Downey Jr.
15:48Although he loses to Al Pacino for his role in Scent of a Woman...
15:52I'm just getting warmed up.
15:55Downey is also just getting warmed up.
15:58Over the next year, he wins Britain's version of the Academy Award, his first son Indio
16:03is born, and Downey delivers scene-stealing moments in some of the decade's most artistic
16:09films, including Robert Altman's Short Cuts and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers.
16:15Wait, wait, wait, wait, time, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.
16:19That's a f***ing joke, right?
16:22But these visible successes mask something hidden away inside Downey that leads him to
16:26begin using an even more addicting drug.
16:30He'd been doing drugs for a long time by 1995, coke, weed, drinking, everything.
16:37But actually 1995 was the sort of moment when he did heroin for the first time.
16:43The type of heroin Downey is using is black tar, a crude variant popular in the 90s that's
16:48also known as black dragon.
16:51Black tar heroin was a readily available sort of good source of heroin, cheap, and that's
16:58what was being shot.
17:02Downey will later admit that smoking heroin is why his performances are so subdued in
17:06the films that he made at the time, something that did not go unnoticed by his peers.
17:13He was doing Home for the Holidays at the time, so he was making this movie which Jodie
17:17Foster was directing, and Jodie Foster remembers writing this letter to him just saying, don't
17:24do this, basically.
17:25Like, you've got all these gifts, you've got this ability.
17:28You could do anything you want in this town, but you're taking heroin, you're ruining it,
17:34you're giving yourself an opportunity to destroy everything that you've built.
17:38He didn't listen to her, he was in the throes of heavy addiction by that point, so he wasn't
17:43ready to listen to anybody.
17:52The first time I knew about serious trouble involving Robert Downey Jr. was when my editor
18:00said that Downey had been arrested.
18:04Downey gets pulled over for driving 70 miles per hour on the winding Pacific Coast Highway
18:09just outside of Malibu.
18:11He's pulled over for speeding, for suspected driving under the influence.
18:17Cop finds cocaine, finds heroin, and finds a .357 mag.
18:26What starts with a cop pulling him over will lead to a judge throwing the book and will
18:31deliver Robert Downey Jr. to the brink of self-destruction.
18:37Things are going from bad to worse.
18:43By 1996, Robert Downey Jr. is no longer a Hollywood bad boy.
18:48He's now being cast as a man whose life is dangerously out of control.
18:52At this point, he is possibly a danger to himself and to the community if and when he
18:59drives under the influence.
19:01Suddenly he's lighting the full view of the world's press as someone who's caught with
19:05all these drugs, under the influence, and with a gun.
19:09The DUI, drug and gun possession charges, put a somber and contrite-looking Downey in
19:13front of a judge.
19:16After that first court appearance, Robert Downey Jr. doesn't go off to jail, he doesn't
19:20go off to prison.
19:21He's essentially out on bail.
19:23So another court hearing is set and he is let go.
19:28It leaves him free to continue smoking heroin and freebasing cocaine on a near daily basis.
19:34When Robert Downey Jr. is left to his own devices, he finds trouble.
19:40And in this case, God bless him, it was the weirdest kind of trouble you can imagine.
19:47Just a month after the first court appearance, police receive a 911 call from Downey's neighbor
19:53in Malibu.
19:58His neighbor goes into the child's bedroom.
20:03And who is asleep in the kid's room but Robert Downey Jr.?
20:08They were just putting one of the kids to bed and they found a lump in the bed and it
20:13was Downey Jr. who had walked into the wrong house and had climbed into this child's bed.
20:20Snoozing away.
20:22Media quickly labeled this latest chapter in the Downey saga, the Goldilocks incident.
20:27You know, who's sleeping in my bed?
20:29911 emergency, what do you report?
20:31There's a strange man in my child's bed.
20:33The neighbor calls 911 and says, you know, you're not gonna believe this, but Robert
20:37Downey Jr. is asleep in my kid's bed.
20:39It seems he passed out in my child's bed.
20:42He's unconscious.
20:45Even in Hollywood, this is strange.
20:48And you listen to the 911 call, you can literally hear Robert Downey Jr. snoring in the background.
20:54He was kind of shaken, but he was moaning and kind of talked, but he seemed to have
20:59just gone right back to sleep.
21:03He said the cab took him to the wrong house.
21:06I don't think that's true, really.
21:07I think it was just too much drinking, too much drugs, and I want to go home and I want
21:12to go to bed.
21:13So of course, everyone's joking about it.
21:15Oh, Robert Downey Jr. broke into somebody's house, fell asleep in the bed, ha ha.
21:20Luckily, Downey's neighbors don't press charges, but the incident still makes headlines.
21:26And even worse, it violates the probation of his first DUI.
21:31After the Goldilocks incident, it became this kind of nonstop trail of one court date after
21:38another.
21:39He's missing court-mandated drug tests.
21:42He's continually screwing up.
21:44Four months later, in 1996, the court orders Downey to attend a treatment center in Marina
21:49del Rey.
21:51But it lacks the one thing Downey craves, more drugs.
21:55The moment he gets into this rehab, he's already looking at ways that he can get away.
21:59So you know, he figures out a way, a window to climb out of.
22:06He's wearing his hospital pants and a Hawaiian shirt and slippers, and he sneaks out into
22:12the night.
22:13He kind of stumbles his way into a surf shop nearby.
22:16The people recognize him in this surf shop and call him a cab, and he's away.
22:21It just, again, you want to kind of laugh about it.
22:24It's a comic scene, perhaps, but at the same time, it's like, my God, you know, is this
22:30how badly you want those drugs that you just can't even spend two days in rehab?
22:38Downey tries to play his addictions for laughs when he returns to Saturday Night Live as
22:42a guest host that November.
22:44I did have a really interesting summer, though.
22:48Here's me picking up a little prescription from my pharmacist.
22:52This next one is of me when I stayed at this terrific guest house in Malibu.
22:55It was actually two doors down from my own house, but you know.
23:00But if laughter is the great healer, it doesn't work on Downey, who shows no intention of
23:05sobering up.
23:06He wasn't ready to go through that, even though people were starting to say, look, man, like,
23:11things are going off the rails big time here.
23:13Like, you're struggling.
23:15Something needs to change.
23:17He just wasn't ready to accept it.
23:20One person who's ready for a change is Downey's wife, Deborah Falconer.
23:24She serves him with separation papers.
23:28I think there was a lot of relationship issues and personal issues that were starting to
23:31press on him.
23:34After another DUI and drug possession charge, along with his multiple probation violations,
23:40the Malibu judge, Lawrence Mira, tries to scare Downey straight.
23:44The judge says, look, I just have no choice here.
23:48You know, I'm running out of patients.
23:50I'm running out of options.
23:51And the judge throws Downey in jail, in jail for 113 days.
23:58Downey gets sent to the L.A. County Central Men's Jail, home to violent offenders and
24:03rat-infested cells.
24:07Unlike the other prisoners, however, the judge lets Downey leave the jail to act in a movie.
24:12But getting chauffeured by sheriff deputies to Paramount Studios doesn't sit well with
24:16Downey's fellow inmates.
24:18If they see another inmate getting special treatment, this makes it more difficult for
24:25us to control their behavior in a jail institutional setting.
24:30It's a lesson Downey learns the hard way.
24:35Downey got attacked.
24:37He got his face bashed in.
24:39And it was so serious that, you know, he had to have medical attention and even plastic
24:44surgery to kind of fix his nose.
24:47So yes, it was a very, very rough stretch in county jail.
24:55After his release, Downey looks for work in movies, any movies, to help finance his continuing
25:00addiction.
25:02And the problem is, is that he was still a kind of semi-successful movie star at the
25:06time.
25:07So he was still doing these films.
25:09Deputy, get me out of these cuffs right now.
25:12It's a problem because Downey's ability to keep working may be stopping him from getting
25:16clean.
25:17My experience has been that returning to work and not prioritizing the recovery is what
25:22takes them out.
25:23You can stop the revolving door of rehab by spending enough time in treatment.
25:28That's what celebrities need to do.
25:33By 1999, no matter how much compassion anybody has for Robert Downey Jr., it's run out.
25:44After failing to show up for his mandatory drug test, and with more parole violations
25:48since leaving county jail, Downey's back in front of Judge Mira.
25:53This time, armed with a team of celebrity lawyers, including Robert Shapiro, best known
25:59for successfully co-defending O.J. Simpson.
26:03Robert Downey Jr. is led into court.
26:06He's in an orange jumpsuit.
26:08His hands are shackled.
26:10You would have thought he was being treated like a serial killer.
26:14In front of a media-packed courtroom, Downey pleads his case.
26:19That's when he makes the famous line about the gun in his mouth, his finger on the trigger.
26:25It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth, and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like
26:29the taste of the gun metal.
26:31It's his way of explaining that he's not just addicted to the drugs, but he's addicted to
26:36the danger.
26:38But this is no courtroom drama, and Mira isn't an actor playing a part.
26:43He's a judge who's seen enough of Downey's performance.
26:46The judge just threw up his hands and said, look, Mr. Downey, I don't think we have any
26:50alternatives here.
26:52We have used them all.
26:53I have to send you to state prison, and not just to prison.
26:56I can send you to prison for three years.
27:01There was a stunned silence.
27:04He didn't seem to understand why he was sitting there in court, facing prison time, going
27:11off to the same prison holding Charles Manson.
27:18I'm living my dreams.
27:20In July of 2000, already 12 months into his three-year sentence, a not especially contrite
27:26Robert Downey Jr. gives an interview to NBC News from a cell block in California's Corcoran
27:32State Prison.
27:33Hey, smile.
27:34You're on Corcoran camera.
27:35No, I'm sorry.
27:36Go ahead.
27:38Despite his manic energy, Downey's not doing easy time.
27:42This is not a country club.
27:44It's out in the middle of nowhere.
27:46It is surrounded by fences and razor wire, and there are guards with guns.
27:52These are, you know, tough criminals, even in the minimum to moderate security wing.
27:58And just on the other side of the fence is the high security part.
28:04Prison culture is really something that's hard to explain, but it's opened my eyes to
28:13a lot.
28:14For somebody who has arguably not hurt another person except himself, this is hard time.
28:19I'm just, I'm just waiting to do the next, next right thing.
28:24I'm just waiting to do the next right thing.
28:26I'm just, I'm just waiting to do the next, next right thing.
28:29I'm just, I'm just waiting to do the next, next right thing.
28:34I know I'm not doing it my way when I leave.
28:36He's in a dorm like setting.
28:39He gets the top bunk because nobody wants the top bunk.
28:41He also has to deal with the fact that he's famous.
28:47Unlike his stint in the LA County Jail, Downey gets no days off to shoot a movie.
28:51I've taken it upon myself to see that if anything, I get slightly less preferential treatment
28:59because sometimes even just having things even would seem not fair.
29:04Downey proves to be a model prisoner, and the courts decide to release him after he
29:08served 15 months of his sentence.
29:11He does manage to get released from Corcoran a little bit earlier and kind of adjourns
29:15to another rehab.
29:16And this is his kind of one big shot, or it feels like, to change his life completely.
29:21And you would have thought he would.
29:23He's stayed clean.
29:25He's gone to his classes.
29:28He's done his counseling.
29:30And he immediately gets a job on a show called Ally McBeal.
29:34I have a child.
29:40What?
29:41When Robert Downey Jr. was added to the cast, he was just recently out of prison.
29:47But nobody cared about that.
29:49He's seven years old.
29:52Why didn't you tell me this before?
29:54Everybody was elated.
29:55They were excited.
29:57My name is Michael Schultz.
29:59I'm a director who happened to be lucky enough to work with Robert Downey Jr. for a brief
30:05moment in Ally McBeal.
30:11Created by David E. Kelly and starring Calista Flockhart, Ally McBeal is in his fourth season
30:15when Downey becomes her new love interest, playing a man with a complicated past and
30:20deep commitment issues.
30:22Merry Christmas.
30:24He loved his creative genius.
30:28And so it was like a spark plug.
30:31Downey injects life into the latter part of this run of this show.
30:38Gail O'Grady gets cast to play Downey's ex-wife on the show.
30:42We did a scene where we were in an ice cream parlor and I was putting whipped cream on
30:47the end of his nose and Calista walks in and gets jealous and dumps a whole ice cream sundae
30:54on his head.
30:59Are you done?
31:00Mm-hmm.
31:01Good.
31:02We did it a few times.
31:04We definitely did it more than once.
31:06And Robert's a good sport.
31:14I'm Gail O'Grady.
31:16Once upon a time I got to play Robert Downey Jr.'s ex-wife.
31:20Hello.
31:21Hi.
31:22My name is Dawn Allie McBeal.
31:25Working with Robert, like every once in a while you come across actors that transport
31:33you into another place.
31:38While Downey's performance helps bolster the show's ratings, working so soon after prison
31:43isn't helping Downey's stace over, something Dr. Drew sees all too often with celebrity
31:48patients.
31:50They need to not work.
31:52They need to focus on their recovery.
31:55He went back and did television and then relapsed immediately after that.
31:59And by that Thanksgiving, three months after his release from prison, he gets arrested
32:04again for drug possession at a resort in Palm Springs.
32:08The officers were able to search the room.
32:11During the search they found a small amount of methamphetamine and cocaine, which was
32:15consistent with personal use amounts.
32:18Even though everyone would think that coming out of Corcoran and you'd go, you know what,
32:21I'm turning over a new leaf, that's not me anymore.
32:24That pretty much was him continuing on, like he didn't change all that much.
32:29Downey's court date for the arrest gets set for the following spring and if convicted
32:33would be sent back to prison for four more years.
32:36But professionally, David Kelly's willing to let the incident slide because the drugs
32:40have yet to interfere with his performance on set.
32:44In fact, they sign him on for eight more episodes.
32:51David Kelly chose to keep Robert Downey because he loved him.
33:00He loved him as an actor, you know.
33:03And when Robert was on the set, it was all about the work.
33:07He was totally into character.
33:10He was totally focused.
33:12I know that he showed up on that set and did his work and he was professional.
33:22He's one of those actors that when you stand across from him, there's an extra sprinkling
33:33of something special.
33:37That extra sprinkle earns Downey a Golden Globe Award for his performance on the show
33:42in January 2001.
33:43Hi, thanks.
33:44I just wanted to share this with my fellow parolees, I mean nominees, and just say that
33:53this really means a lot.
33:57The award is bittersweet.
33:59Just two days later, Downey receives divorce papers from Deborah Falconer, who's demanding
34:05that the actor be allowed only supervised visits with their son.
34:10And Downey's relapses become more frequent and more obvious.
34:14I come to work and Robert is supposed to be in my first scene.
34:22Then my AD comes and says, we can't find Robert.
34:30We sent somebody over to his house.
34:32He's not in his house.
34:34He's MIA.
34:38Just a few months after the Golden Globes, in April of 2001, Robert Downey Jr. is arrested
34:46again.
34:48He's wandering the streets of Culver City barefooted on drugs.
34:57And professionally, that's it.
35:01The people at Ally McBeal gave him another chance.
35:05You want him a Golden Globe, you help their ratings, but he's got a few episodes left
35:10to shoot and that's it.
35:13They just can't.
35:14Downey's character is supposed to marry Ally McBeal in the season finale.
35:18Instead, David Kelley has no choice but to fire him.
35:23Because of his relapse, they had to figure a way to write him out of the series and it
35:31ended pretty abruptly.
35:32He dropped off a note.
35:33I think David was really saddened and Calista was brokenhearted, you know, that he was not
35:46going to be able to complete the show.
35:50Robert Downey Jr. does avoid more prison time, as long as he goes back into rehab.
35:57But in April of 2001, despite his immense talent, it is financially impossible to hire
36:06him.
36:07As far as Hollywood is concerned, he's toast.
36:14In July of 2001, California's Proposition 36 diverts nonviolent drug offenders into
36:20rehab instead of prison.
36:22It essentially decriminalizes drug possession when it's for personal use.
36:28The change in law saves Downey from another stint behind bars.
36:31But when it comes to acting, there's not an insurance company in America that will let
36:36Downey step onto another movie set.
36:39People still wanted to work with him, but the insurance company just said no, like no.
36:44It's not just that they wouldn't insure Downey, they wouldn't insure a show that he was working
36:49on.
36:51In the language of addiction, Downey has finally hit rock bottom.
36:56His marriage has collapsed, he is broke, and he has no way to make a living.
37:05But it's this forced unemployment that may help save Downey.
37:09He finally has nothing but time to focus on his sobriety.
37:13The most vivid memory I have of Robert Downey Jr. is when he was getting very serious about
37:20his recovery, and he disappeared.
37:24He finally got the message, he focused on his recovery, and he stays sober, and he passes
37:30the drug tests, and he impresses the judge and the prosecutors and everybody he has to
37:36impress.
37:38He's clean for maybe the first time in a long time.
37:43So the only question is, will he get a job?
37:48What he needed was a guardian angel who would believe in him, and he found that person in
37:55Mel Gibson.
37:58In 2003, when no one else will, his old co-star from Air America offers Downey the lead role
38:04in a film called The Singing Detective.
38:15To get around the insurance company's boycott of Downey, Gibson personally underwrites the
38:20movie with his own money.
38:22Now, remember, he's richer than God, but Gibson himself covered the insurance costs.
38:29He vouched for Downey to show up.
38:33Despite the film's mostly negative reviews by critics, Gibson's generosity resuscitates
38:38Downey's career by giving Downey the chance to win over the only audience that really
38:43matters.
38:45The insurance companies.
38:46He reproved to Hollywood that he was a brilliant actor who can transcend even mediocre material.
38:54I'm here to help you, but you have to trust me.
38:57That same year, he appears opposite Halle Berry in the psychological horror flick Gothica.
39:03On that set, he met and fell in love with the love of his life.
39:10Susan Levin is a producer on the film.
39:12In 2003, when they start dating, she has one simple stipulation.
39:18She said quite early on, like, if you do drugs, I will break up with you.
39:24And I think the fantastic thing for their relationship is that he was ready to hear
39:28it.
39:29He was finally ready to understand what that meant.
39:31He realized he'd found someone special.
39:34And it's been a relationship now that's lasted 20 years.
39:37I mean, in Hollywood terms, that's practically a lifetime.
39:41Two years after getting remarried, Downey lands the role that transforms him from an
39:45award-winning actor into a global superstar.
39:49Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing.
39:51I think what makes Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. such a good marriage of material and person
39:55is that this is someone who actually is quite similar.
39:59Robert's a grown up in the public eye.
40:02Everything good and bad that's happened in his life, everybody's seen.
40:05And Tony Stark, he's a guy who's also grown up in the public eye.
40:08Iron Man in the comics is an alcoholic.
40:11He's someone who's kind of glib and silly and funny.
40:13He's not a kind of serious superhero.
40:17And that's not what Robert Downey Jr. is either.
40:19He's someone who's loud, funny, quirky, and also has these substance abuse issues in the
40:24past.
40:26Iron Man is the first movie in what will become Marvel's $30 billion cinematic universe.
40:32And as the face of that franchise, it makes Downey one of the richest actors on the planet.
40:37What makes Robert Downey Jr.'s life so interesting is things happened off camera, on camera.
40:44We see it, you know, in only snippets.
40:47And I think that makes it more mysterious, that makes it more kind of exciting to dig
40:52into.
40:53We're just having fun and getting started.
40:55And Downey finally digs deeper into his own life when he produces a documentary called
41:00Senior, about his complex relationship with his father, who's dying from Parkinson's disease
41:05during its filming in 2020.
41:08There's a scene when he's going up to see his father in the apartment and, you know,
41:13his dad's dying.
41:14And Downey's just like a father's son, you know, he's not a superstar, he's concerned
41:18about his dad, still working out a lifetime of issues, but there for his father.
41:25The documentary also gives his father an opportunity to acknowledge how that early exposure to
41:30drugs affected his son's entire life.
41:34His father did regret later on.
41:36I think, you know, there was an idea that his dad was like, yeah, take this, who cares?
41:40But actually later on in his life, his dad did express a lot of regret for that and realized
41:44that it was kind of a bad thing to do.
41:46He thought it was cute to let him smoke it and all that.
41:49It was an idiot move on our part, a lot of us, to share that with our children.
41:53I'm just happy he's here.
41:56That's all.
41:59In 2021, Downey's father dies at the age of 85, but he leaves behind a son who is finally
42:05coming to his own and whose self-sabotaging days seem very much behind him.
42:10With his best supporting actor win at the 2024 Oscars, Downey, now sober for 22 years,
42:17is finally recognized for the talent he spent the first two decades of his life drowning
42:22out with drugs.
42:23I'd like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy in that order.
42:29Robert Downey Jr. is the ultimate redemption story.
42:33Nobody has fallen so far and been so low and come back so big than Robert Downey Jr.
42:43Robert is truly an inspiration.
42:46He's one of the most extraordinary recoveries you could possibly imagine, and he continues
42:51to inspire others.
42:52He is humble and recovering.
42:56He's a model for how this should be done.
42:59It gives everyone hope.
43:01There were these kind of different waves of Downey Jr.
43:07Certainly from a kind of hero's journey, he is one for the ages.
43:11He's someone who seemed destined for greatness from a very early age, and then it all seemed
43:17to come unraveled.
43:20You could never see any way back from where he was, and yet somehow he's managed to claw
43:25his way back into the public consciousness and become one of the biggest actors of all
43:29time.
43:30The genius was so unstoppable that he rose from the ashes and became this superstar.
43:41He's a good person, and he just gets better like fine wine.
43:48I think that's why we wanted him to succeed.