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You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who enjoys movies, yet doesn’t know who Robert Downey Jr. is. The man has been one of Hollywood’s biggest actors for many years now, and in March, he finally won an Academy Award thanks to his performance as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer. Much of Downey’s success stems from his time playing Iron Man in the Marvel movies in order, but he’s been acting a lot longer than that. Jake Gyllenhaal, one of the many people who’s performed alongside him, described what it’s like filming with Downey, which included him saying it’s like “working in 10-D.”
In 2007, one year before Downey debuted as Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he and Jake Gyllenhaal starred with Mark Ruffalo in Zodiac, which CinemaBlend’s own Riley Utley once described as the “scariest” movie she’s ever seen. Following Downey’s Oscar win, Gyllenhaal recollected on his Zodiac experience while appearing on The Howard Stern Show. When the title host brought up how Gyllenhaal worked with Downey at a time when the latter “couldn’t get hired in Hollywood,” to which the Donnie Darko actor said:
I love Downey…I was with him when he was driving himself to work when he had to insure himself. You know? It’s the most incredible part of the business to watch him, let’s be honest, he had a lot of ups before he won the Oscar. Like, I mean Iron Man and that whole world and Sherlock Holmes.
Although Robert Downey Jr. made big splashes early on his his career with movies like Back to School, Air America, Chaplin and Natural Born Killers, by the late 1990s, he was dealing with addiction issues and frequent run-ins with the law. Although he was able to make his career resurgence in the early-mid 2000s with Gothika, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Good Night, and Good Luck, among others, this was still at a time when he faced an uphill battle getting work in Hollywood. Even Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige admitted that Downey wasn’t the “first choice” to play Iron Man, and even when Director Jon Favreau chose the actor, Marvel was initially hesitant to go through with the casting.
As far as Zodiac goes, Jake Gyllenhaal had no trouble recognizing Downey’s incredible talent. But on top of delivering an impressive performance as Paul Avery, the Tropic Thunder star also helped the Nightcrawler actor with memorizing his lines. As Gyllenhaal explained:
He is an extraordinary actor, always has been. When you talk about somebody when you watch them work where you’re just in awe – he’s one of those. The speed at which he works. I remember him teaching me how he memorizes lines… I always have a hard time… He showed me his technique because I was struggling with a speech. He memorized things in a way where you memorize them so fast you don’t think about them, so it’s musical. And so your conscious brain is not connected to the words you’re saying then you slow it down… you’re not having to think about what the next word is. That’s his magic. His mind works so quickly. I always say working with Robert is like working in 10-D. You’re tripping. It’s extraordinary.
So far Zodiac is the only time that Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. have worked together, although Spider-Man: Far From Home did see Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio being presented as a disgruntled ex-employee of Tony Stark’s. Maybe there will come a day when these two can participate in the same project again, but clearly Downey had no trouble leaving an impression on Gyllenhaal. Now if only some other costars of Downey’s con confirm if that “10-D” statement is on point.
If you’re in the mood to watch Zodiac now, it can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video subscribers have access to to Jake Gyllenhaal’s latest movie, the Road House remake, and Max subscribers can check Robert Downey Jr. out in the miniseries The Sympathizer, which he stars in and produced.