Robert Downey Jr. thinks there's no role like Holmes
December 26, 2009
BY CINDY PEARLMAN Sun-Times Columnist
LONDON — This is not a case of no shtick, Sherlock.
Robert Downey Jr., the latest actor to deduce the role of Sherlock Holmes, is riffing next to his Watson. “It’s true that Jude Law and I have magnificent chemistry together. Our next stop after this movie is romantic comedies.”
Downey relaxes in a giant stone room at Freemason Hall in London on a trademark rainy gray day. In a black suit with his dark hair spiked everywhere, Downey mentions that he had to fight a bit to play the most frequently portrayed character in film history. According to Guinness World Records, at least 75 actors have been Sherlock.
“At one point, there was some talk that I was too old to play the role,” says the 44-year-old. “Then I faxed everyone the grosses for ‘Iron Man’ and suddenly I wasn’t too old anymore. It’s amazing how things work in Hollywood!”
It was more than elementary that he could run around jolly old Victorian London as a martial-arts Sherlock Holmes who must fight the sinister Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), a man who claims he has special powers that he will use to bring down Parliament. At Sherlock’s side is his trusty friend Watson (Law), reminding everyone, “I am a doctor.”
He’s also a great partner, which is at the heart of this film. “Jude and I know how to yin and yang,” says Downey. “It just felt natural. We are like an eccentric married couple now.”
Downey says he read Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed detective novels as a boy and was always intrigued. “I loved that Sherlock was not only a character of a specific period, but he was flawed in a way that anyone could identify with during any time,” Downey says. “He’s rather selfish and arrogant. He even suffers from depression.
“He’s an intriguing man.”
His take on the film was quite specific and avoided the Sherlock cliches. “My take is what the puritans would expect, if the puritans know what I’m talking about,” he says.
“Several of the most surprising things right off the bat are that oft- associated props have never appeared in the novels or the short stories,” says this Sherlock scholar.
“He never wore a cap except maybe once for a minute, but even then it was described differently,” Downey says. “Even the long pipe wasn’t in the books.” (Sherlock also never said, “It’s elementary, my dear Watson” in the books, but that device is used on screen).
His Sherlock is also a bare-fisted brawler who uses martial arts moves to stun his enemies. “I’ve been studying martial arts for the past six years and love bare- knuckle boxing,” Downey says. “This was just a choreographed version of what I know how to do.
“Guy [Ritchie, the director] made it clear we were going to do something called Holmes Vision. You see Holmes’ vision of a punch before he delivers it and then you see the real thing. For the slow-motion fighting scenes, Guy used to tell me to try a take where I was punching through peanut butter,” Downey says. “That was the strangest direction I’ve ever got on a film set.
“This was Guy’s take on the film and Sherlock and it was me trusting him and getting his approval,” Downey says. “That said, I’m crazy about the fighting and I love it.”
What’s not in the movie is any drug use, which has been a staple of prior Sherlocks where the characters dabbled in a bit of cocaine. (It was typical in their day). Downey, who has suffered his own well-publicized drug issues and now is clean, says, “If you go back to the old Sherlocks, he was never a strung-out weirdo. In those days, you could go down to the corner pharmacy and grab what you wanted.
“We did amend that part of it,” he says. “This is a PG-13 film.”
As for shooting in London, “Well, I was here 20 years ago in London filming and what I do remember is the food sucked,” Downey says, recalling his Oscar-nominated role as Charlie Chaplin. “Then I did ‘Air America’ here too, which incidentally I call ‘Air Generica.’
“There’s something about shooting in England that’s an enriched experience because of the people and the culture,” he says. “As Americans, we can have a bit of an abrupt attitude, which is so different from England.”
“It’s not so much saying, ‘F---, this is what we’re going through.’ Instead, it’s, ‘Let’s have a spot of tea and talk it out.’ ”
He says returning to America with his wife (and “Sherlock” producer Susan Downey) was a bit of culture shock. “When I came back from England, I landed in New Jersey,” Downey says. “I had been speaking the proper Queen’s English and then came back to Jersey and heard what was the most grating thing I’ve ever hear in my life. ... That was me talking in my real voice.”
In the end, Downey isn’t worried about career moves. His “Iron Man 2” debuts next May and he’s on quite the roll. “I don’t get scared anymore,” he says. “I just get busy. It’s not about fear of the judgment of others. It’s just about me meeting my own standards.”
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Originally Posted by Psycho Mantis
