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Matthew Robalino

Professor Kane

English 115TTh2

14 November 2019

E1.2:​ Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. was a rising star in Hollywood during the 80’s​.​ Nowadays he has

been in a whole saga of blockbuster films​. ​He is now considered as a role model with millions of

people looking up to him​.​ However, his early life wasn’t always that fortunate​.​ Back in the day

every time his name was mentioned, drugs and alcohol were involved​.​ During the 80’s while he

was becoming well-known, he was already using drugs​.​ In his early teens, he started smoking

weed, which evolved over the years and turned into heroin​.​ Already getting in trouble with the

law he did not make a good reputation for himself, though that would change years after​.​ Even

though all of the signs given to him showing him reasons why to stop, his wife ended up giving

the final ultimatum​. ​Robert would not have a career today if his wife had not made him choose

between her or drugs, this moment allowed him to keep and expand his family​ ​and further his

career.

When he was young he starred in a season of ​Saturday Night Live​.​ He was also in movies

like ​Weird Science​ and ​The Pick-Up Artist​ in 1987​. ​That same year, he also starred in the film

adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel, ​Less Than Zero,​ where he played a rich kid whose life

went off the rails in the middle of a severe ​heroin addiction​.​ Kindra Sclar in her article states,
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“Downey’s off-screen life would soon uncannily resemble that role​.​” This role foreshadows that

his life would start to go downhill​.​ His success kept rising until 1996, but when he got arrested

for possessing cocaine and heroin it was clear that he actually did follow the footsteps of the

role​.​ Since then he continued to be arrested multiple times for drug offenses, and he kept getting

in and out of jail​.​ Being a celebrity from such a small age like Robert can put a lot of pressure on

you​.​ It can damage someone mentally and emotionally, he was already dealing with his addiction

so imagine adding the emotional and mental distress to that​.

Without his epiphany, his life would probably be destroyed​.​ One of the incidents he went

through while using drugs is when he wandered into a neighbor’s house and passing out on their

11-year-old-son’s bed​.​ In 1994, two years after having his kid, he was stopped by police after

driving naked in his Porsche on Sunset Boulevard, also in possession of cocaine, heroin, and a

gun​.​ He missed multiple court ordered drug tests and was sentenced to three years in prison in

1999, but he only served a year in California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State

Prison, Corcoran​.​ Two years later, Robert was found wandering around barefoot in Culver City,

California, and was arrested once again for being under the influence​.​ After so many incidents,

he ended up being fired from his role on the TV show ​Ally McBeal​ and other jobs​.​ He was then

ordered to go to rehab​.​ Before rehab, it was practically impossible for him to get hired because

filmmakers would not pay the exorbitant insurance bonds required for him to be on set​.
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Now thanks to his change in direction he has 3 kids with his wife and is one of the most

iconic actors in the world​.​ His fame rose in 2008 when he played Tony Stark in the blockbuster

film ​Iron Man​ and a method actor in ​Tropic Thunder​.​ He received two Oscar nominations, he

then starred in more ​Iron Man​ movies, multiple ​Avengers​ movies, two Sherlock Holmes movies,

and numerous Marvel Universe films​. ​His own kids can now be inspired by him to never go

down that route of drugs and addiction. Robert was once believed to be a toxic person, now

directors and studios are seeking for him. He has now been sober for more than 15 years and is

an inspiration for everyone. Normally when there is a drug addict within a family, they just get

forgotten because the family feels like there is no saving them. Instead, Robert’s wife stood by

his side to help him even though she did give him a strict choice that if he kept using drugs he

was going to lose her and his son, that’s when he realized that he had to change for the better.

Just like Robert has struggled with drugs and addiction, other people have struggled but

in different ways. On the #MeToo article by Tarana Burke we learn about what some women go

through in the workplace. Men treat them with disrespect with sexist comments saying things

like “Bring your tail down here.” Women also feel uncomfortable with how some men act

around them. Just like Robert Downey Jr. did not stop his addiction to get better, these women

also did not stand up for themselves even though they knew that the way they were being

sexually harassed. However, these women did not speak out because they knew that if they did

they would lose their jobs which they needed because they could not afford to be jobless.​ ​In

Robert’s case, he did not have a reason to not get sober.

Robert went through obstacles just like Martin Luther King Jr. even though they were

different. King was fighting for equality while Robert was just fighting with himself to stay
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sober​.​ They have both been arrested but for different reasons. King was arrested over twenty

times for protesting. He received several violent attacks, both to his person and his property and

Robert instead was the one who was a danger to himself.​ ​Both of them had the support of their

wives behind them trying to help them in any way and wanting the best for them. Even if they

have very different lives, they still both went through harsh experiences just to overcome their

obstacles.

Drugs and alcohol are one of the hardest addictions to quit. Even some people that do end

up quitting it relapse eventually. ​Abusing illegal or certain prescription drugs can create changes

in the brain, causing powerful cravings and a compulsion to use that makes sobriety seem like an

impossible goal. For some people it is also very hard to recognize and accept that they have an

addiction.

Some may say that if the father has drug addiction problems then so will the son. In this

case that is how it went. One of his kids, his eldest son Indio, also struggled with addiction just

as he had. Addiction is a disease that can also run in families, in this case, the Downey family.

Indio was arrested in 2014 for the possession of cocaine. Robert blames himself for this but

keeps his mind positive.​ ​He knows that if he can overcome it, so can his son​.​ Indio made it a

goal is to get sober, and so far he has been well​. ​Besides all the ups and downs that Robert and

Indio went through because of addiction,​ ​the family still holds a good connection with each

other.​ ​Robert has his wife to thank for helping him get his life back on track​. ​Now they are also

both there for their son​.

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Work Cited

Sclar, Kindra. “Robert Downey Jr.’s Incredible Comeback from Addiction.” ​Drug Abuse​,

drugabuse.com/robert-downey-jr-s-incredible-comeback-from-addiction/.

Accessed 21 Sept. 2019.