Robert Downey Jr's Worst Ever Audition Story Has Nothing To Do With Hollywood

Summary:

• Robert Downey Jr. is an American actor widely known for his performances as MCU 's Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes, and Oppenheimer 's Lewis Strauss.
• The actor's career hasn't been linear, with some ups and downs in the beginning.
• However, his worst audition to date wasn't associated with any particular studio or director.

Right now, Robert Downey Jr. is one of those actors who probably rarely has to audition. His talent speaks for itself, and he gets invitations directly from Hollywood's most respected directors, such as Christopher Nolan and his award-winning hit of 2023, Oppenheimer. But it hasn't always been that way.

No matter how big of a name he has today, Robert Downey Jr. started out just like everyone else and had his fair share of trials and tribulations before hitting the jackpot. Aside from addiction issues, the actor had a lot of trouble securing meaningful roles, so he went through many different auditions.

As you can imagine, not all of them ended in success. However, the worst one, which Downey had to leave immediately, had no connection to any Hollywood studio, producer or casting director.

Robert Downey Jr. Dr. Pepper Commercial

Although there were a lot of Dr Pepper commercials in partnership with Iron Man back in the day, Robert Downey Jr. wasn't a part of them. Perhaps that has to do with a bad experience the actor had with the product back in the day.

As he shared at The Hollywood Reporter's roundtable, the Dr Pepper commercial happened to be the worst audition he has ever been a part of. It was so silly, in fact, that the actor just walked out rather than take the chance:

“I went in for a Dr Pepper commercial. They came out in the hallway and they said, “OK, you’re the pied piper and everybody wants to be like you.” And I just stood up and walked out of there,” the actor recalls the experience.

Considering that many celebrity stories of bad auditions involve epic failures on their part, or horrible behavior on the part of the production team behind the show or movie, Robert Downey Jr. can definitely count himself lucky that this was his worst experience. Still, it makes for an entertaining story, and one that Dr Pepper can learn from.

After all, you never know which of the rising stars you are trying to cast in your commercial will be flying around the Marvel set in an iron suit next. Better to be safe than sorry.

If you're interested in seeing Robert Downey Jr.'s latest performance, which is far more successful than said commercial, Oppenheimer can be purchased online for digital streaming on Amazon's Prime Video or Apple TV.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter