Robert Downey Jr. Wins Best Supporting Actor at the 2024 Oscars
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With his third Oscar nomination, Robert Downey Jr. has finally secured a trophy; the actor just took home the prize for Best Supporting Actor this evening, for his performance as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer.
"Thanks fellas, that's amazing, you only flubbed one line," Downey began his speech, joking about the introductions.
"I'd like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order. I'd like to thank my—veterinarian, I meant wife Susan Downey, over there. She found me a snarling rescue pet, and it loved me back to life. And that's why I'm here. Thank you."
Downey continued, "Here's my little secret: I needed this job more than it needed me," before thanking Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan, and his costars. "I stand here before you a better man because of it. What we do is meaningful, and the stuff we decide to make is important." He concluded his speech by thanking his agent, publicist, stylist, and his entertainment lawyer.
Downey was last nominated for an Oscar in 2009, for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Tropic Thunder (he lost to Heath Ledger, who won posthumously for his role in The Dark Night). Downey's first nomination came in 1993, for Best Actor for his role as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin; that year, Al Pacinco took home the trophy.
Losing the Oscar in 1993, Downey said, was the best thing that could happen to his career. "I was young and crazy," he said on The View. The win "would have put me under the impression that I was on the right track."
His role in Oppenheimer, the actor has previously told the New York Times, allowed him to regain his "connection with a more purist approach to making movies."
He added, "At this point, you're not doing it for the money. Were you ever doing it for the money once your baseline needs were met? Probably not. Did you think it was about money and prestige? Probably from the time I was a teenager until that illusion dissolved in front of me, leaving me in a depressive state. But then there's the why: I don't know why I can relate to Lewis Strauss so much, but I felt like I was meant to play this role, and I knew I'd be in capable hands. Oppenheimer has been a bit of a demarcation line for me."
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