He didn't play the main role, he was still the villain, and his image was gone.
Downey and his character Strauss.
After the curtain call of Iron Man in 2019 "Avengers 4", do you feel that Robert Downey Jr. has disappeared?
It would be nice if he disappeared completely. Embarrassingly, he has only starred in one movie "Doolittle's Bizarre Adventure" in recent years, and even won a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor.
Other than that, he really disappeared.
I guess Iron Man was holding back his ultimate, but I didn't expect that when he reappeared, there was no trace of Iron Man on his body.
In this issue, we will talk about the story of Iron Man and "Oppenheimer".
Stios and Oppenheimer in the movie.
1] Iron Man is exactly what Nolan is looking for.
A good movie is indispensable for good opponents. Many people know Oppenheimer, the main character in Oppenheimer, but few know his opponent in the film, Strauss. At least not as familiar as Oppenheimer.
Strauss and Oppenheimer (real people).
Therefore, this opponent must be suppressed as soon as it appears, otherwise the drama of the movie will not be enough. Moreover, you can't just look at this actor to know that he is a villain, his hostility must not be superficial.
At the same time, Strauss himself was an extremely complex man, and one of his friends described him as "more elbows than an octopus." If you watch the movie, you will find that his motives for revenge on Oppenheimer are very complex, including family and country feelings, political factors, and personal grudges.
Strauss (real person).
Director Nolan was looking for an actor who could personally observe the complex motivations at different levels in the film's characters and real people. It's even better to find an actor who has been tortured by a similar experience.
Strauss in the movies and in real life.
Nolan said that we often don't know what motivates us to do things, but actors must clearly know what Strauss's motives are, including the motives of movie characters and real people.
In addition, although Strauss is a villain in the film, Nolan as a director and his wife as a producer both believe that Strauss himself must be a charismatic person, otherwise he would not be on the cover of Time magazine.
Donnie Strauss.
As a big fan of Robert Downey Jr., Nolan firmly believes that only Downey can do all this, interpreting Strauss's shocking betrayal of Oppenheimer with enough charm and power to create enough dramatic tension.
There's another important reason why Nolan chose Donnie that you might not imagine.
In close-ups, his expressive dark brown eyes will contrast with the emerald green eyes of Oppenheimer's character.
Downey and Murphy's eye color.
Also, out of selfish motives, Nolan himself would love to work with Downey, and he would like to see Downey challenge a role he had never played before.
2] How committed is Iron Man to his character this time?
More coincidentally, Downey was already very familiar with Strauss.
Filming. As a history buff, Downey has a special interest in World War II and the Cold War, and he knows the trajectory of Strauss's life, from shoe merchant to millionaire to **high**.
Downey's consideration was that he didn't want to play a California liberal who he considered an enemy. A villain who thinks he is a villain has no soul.
The point of identification that Downey eventually finds is the American dream behind the character of Strauss, which tells the story of an expatriate Jew in Richmond, Virginia, who starts by selling shoes and strives to become a lifelong civil servant.
steos (real people).
Downey considered Strauss to be an incredible figure, a figure who could rival Oppenheimer.
Both were born into German Jewish immigrant families. Both are smart, determined, ambitious, and have big eyes. But the trajectories of their lives can also be said to be completely opposite.
Strauss, the valedictorian at his public high school, also dreamed of studying advanced physics, but his graduation was delayed by typhoid fever.
The recession of 1913-1914 took a heavy toll on his family business and prevented him from paying his tuition at the University of Virginia. So Strauss began selling shoes everywhere, and by the time he was 20 years old, he made $20,000. At the time, this was already a significant amount of income. Wealth.
Young Strauss (real person).
Although he didn't go to college, he took a different path and squeezed into the inner circle of Herbert Hoover, then the director of the U.S. Food Administration.
During World War I, Strauss assisted Hoover in humanitarian relief efforts. It was also at that time that Strauss witnessed the Polish-Soviet War of 1919, which led him to oppose communism all his life.
Later, Hoover helped him get a job at an investment firm, funding railroads and steel companies, eventually earning $1 million a year.
In 1929, after Hoover took office, he also appointed Strauss as rear admiral.
Strauss (first from right, real person).
In 1947, then-Truman appointed Strauss as one of the first five members of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), which took over decision-making on atomic and nuclear energy after the Manhattan Project ended. Invite Oppenheimer.
As the film recounts, Strauss appointed Oppenheimer as director of the Institute for Advanced Studies, but later used his position to deprive Oppenheimer of his security clearance.
Strauss and Oppenheimer (film clip).
After watching the movie, we may feel that the character of Strauss is unforgivable for what he did to Oppenheimer.
However, Donnie had his own ideas, and the more he studied Strauss, the more he truly understood the reasons behind Strauss's actions. He knew Strauss was a villain, but he really liked the character. That's what Nolan wants, too.
Donnie Strauss.
Downey knew the character better than anyone on the main creative team, and he even convinced Nolan to reconsider the role of Strauss in the film.
Nolan said: The more he and Donnie talked about Strauss, the more he realized that Strauss not only had a point of view, but also weight.
Robert Downey Jr.
It is easy to forget the threat posed by the USSR to the world and to the American way of life. ”
It's easy to blame all this on McCarthyist madness. But for the post-World War II Cold War world, everything looks fragile and there are no easy answers. ”
It was at this time that Oppenheimer openly opposed the 1949 plan to build a hydrogen bomb and ideally proposed that the nations of the world should lay down their nuclear weapons, which made him numerous enemies in political circles.
Oppenheimer's idea was wonderful, but many people had different opinions about whether it was practical or not.
3] Iron Man, you've changed.
Nolan said that Downey was completely immersed in the character this time, in every aspect, even the hairline.
Donnie's hair is thicker, but he doesn't even need his own hairline to accommodate Strauss's receding hairline.
Donnie's hair is thicker.
The makeup department was supposed to just comb Donnie's hair back as far back as possible, but Downey said we were just fooling around and shaved his hair.
So the forehead we see in the movie is not special effects makeup, but Downey's real forehead.
Donnie Strauss.
When the half-cat looks at this hairline, he sees not the hairline, but Robert Downey Jr.'s farewell to Iron Man.
After watching Donnie's performance in Oppenheimer, can you still find the shadow of Iron Man?
The things that make you successful can also imprison you. If you can't get out, that's all you have for life. If you come out, there are infinite possibilities in this life.
The character of Strauss was just Downey's first stop in farewell to Iron Man. I'm very much looking forward to his future transformations.
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