Robert Downey Jr. has finally won his first Oscar

More than 30 years after first being nominated for Chaplin, Robert Downey Jr. has brought home his very first Oscar

By William Hughes  |  March 11, 2024 | 12:41am
Aux News Robert Downey
Robert Downey Jr. has finally won his first Oscar
Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

After what’s been a very long and winding road, Robert Downey Jr. has just won his first Oscar—more than 30 years after picking up his first nomination for the honor. Tonight, Downey won in the Best Supporting Actor category for his work in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, where he played Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss—eventually revealed to be the closest thing Nolan’s biopic has to a conventional villain. It’s a performance that drew out many of Downey’s best qualities as an actor, surface-level charm spackling over deep anger and insecurity, creating a stomach-churning portrayal of a man raging at living in the shadow of greatness, aware in the moment that he’s little more than a living footnote in the biographies of more important people.

Downey—who was previously nominated for Best Actor for Chaplin in 1993, and Best Supporting Actor for the Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder in 2009— won out over a pretty stacked field of competitors: Sterling K. Brown, Ryan Gosling, Robert De Niro, and Mark Ruffalo were all in contention, giving performances that ranged from deeply hilarious to deeply chilling.

In his speech, Downey (who previously won at the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild for this same role, paving the way for his victory tonight) joked about Tim Robbins’ presentation flub and about his strange upbringing. “I needed this job more than it needed me,” he said. “What we do is meaningful, and the stuff that we decide to make is important. Back to my publicist—” he continued before thanking his stylist and his lawyer of many years.

His win marks the first trophy that Nolan’s film has brought home during tonight’s festivities, but most likely not the last.

 
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