He compared the massive production to “100 people making a watch together every day” and joked about finding out what sort of movie star treatment was available to him once he arrived on the set of the Christopher Nolan-directed epic.
“It’s fun to realize what you’re becoming accustomed to,” Downey said. “‘Like, OK, let’s talk about my perks.’ ‘There are none.’ ‘OK, well, hold on a second here…'” Laughing, he mimicked Nolan with his English accent telling him, “‘You can have $300 a day to spend it however you’d like.'”
Miming his own disbelief, Downey cracked, “I was like, ‘That’s my dry-cleaning budget!'” But getting serious, he added, “First of all, I think, maximum humility is where we get that spot [as actors], whether we can choose to do it or the situation requires. It’s like, you should be scared, you should have approach anxiety to this, because this is real s–t. If you do it right.”
For the many times he did it right, and even for the times that he didn’t, Downey is now an Oscar winner.
And what a night it was. See all the winners from the 2024 Academy Awards:
