When Robert Downey Jr Was Replaced From A Multiple Oscar-Winning Film By George Clooney As The Director Felt His Performance Was An Obstacle: “We Pretended As If Nothing Was Happening…”

Robert Downey Jr once got replaced by George Clooney in a film which later won seven Academy Awards. Read on to know for more.

By
Koimoi.com Team
- September 21, 2023 | 7:07 PM IST
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Robert Downey Jr is not only a popular actor but also one of the biggest stars in Hollywood- all thanks to his Iron Man roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The actor has a net worth of a whopping $300 million despite ending his Iron Man character in 2019. Apart from the Avengers and Iron Man movies, Downey once got an opportunity to star in multiple Oscar winning flick but the role ultimately went to George Clooney. If you are wondering this is for which movie then scroll down to know the details.

The movie which we are talking about is 2013’s Gravity which apart from George Clooney, also starred Sandra Bullock in a lead role. The film went on to scoop a total of seven Oscars out of their 10 nominations. Gravity also raked in a massive $723 million at the box office worldwide.

According to The Things, the movie’s director Alfonso Cuaron, in an interview, shared the reason behind why Robert Downey Jr was replaced by George Clooney especially at a time when Downey’s career was at peak. While dropping a hint at Downey’s acting style, Cuaron asserted, “It became very clear that, as we started to nail the technology, or narrow the technology, that was going to be a big obstacle for his performance.” He continued, “I think Robert is fantastic if you give him the freedom to completely breathe and improvise and change stuff. [But] we tried one of these technologies and it was not compatible.”

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Further shedding light on why Robert Downey Jr had to be replaced in Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron added, “And, after that, we [had a] week that we pretended as if nothing was happening and then we talked and said, ‘This is not going to work. This is tough.’”

Interestingly, two years after Gravity’s release, Robert Downey Jr recalled his audition for the movie on The Howard Stern Show saying, “I went to do a test with a new sort of multi-spherical camera thing they were [using] for how they were going to do all the CGI.”

The Iron Man star added, “And I’m one of those guys who can be comfortably uncomfortable pretty easily, and maybe I was just on my cycle or something, but I went in the morning to do that, and we did it for about twenty minutes, and I said, ‘This is crazy. How much longer?’ And they said, ‘It’s like another two to four hours,’ and I said, ‘No, it isn’t.’”

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