Robert Downey Jr. Talking About The Time He Was Interrogated In Japan For Being Arrested So Many Times Is Incredible

Over the weekend I was bored and went on Youtube to waste away hours of my life because what else is there to do on a Saturday night? In my ‘recommended section’ popped up this goldmine of a clip from 10 years ago where Robert Downey Jr. was talking to a group of A-list celebs including Brad Pitt, Anne Hathaway, and Mickey Rourke at an Oscars roundtable. An absolute wrecking crew of people.

First impressions? RDJ does a PHENOMENAL Japanese impression. I can’t stop laughing when he does it. Reminds of his Tropic Thunder days.

The thought of him there for his Iron Man press tour and being put in a Japanese interrogation room like they finally got their hands on Jack Bauer is hilarious (I know that was the Chinese but you get the point). They stopped him because he didn’t make note on his passport of his arrest history, which is quite SOMETHING, if you are not aware.

Interrogator: Were you in jail or prison?
RDJ: Both.

They ask what the first thing he was arrested for and of course RDJ doesn’t know because he’s been arrested so many times he can’t remember. That’s so cool. Not getting arrested a lot, but knowing where you’ve ended up, which is at the very top of the movie industry, it’s cool to look back and see where you came from. Robert Downey Jr. has lived a fucking hell of a life. He’s been arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine, and an unloaded .357 Magnum handgun while he was speeding down Sunset Boulevard, as well as crashing into some stranger’s house and winding up on their bed. And that’s just a few of his mishaps. He’s even shared the same prison as Charles Manson at one point. In a five year span his life fell apart. His wife left him, he was fired from multiple roles, he alienated friends, and got addicted to drugs. He’s basically if Johnny Manziel came back to the NFL and won multiple Super Bowls, changed his entire persona, and got completely clean off drugs and alcohol. To be honest though, RDJ’s lows were so much lower than Johnny’s so that might not have done him justice in terms of his #ComebackSzn.

It’s crazy to me that a guy who right now is the king of the movie industry and is revered as the guy who saved pop culture in movies once said to a judge in reference to his drug addictions…

“It’s like I have a shotgun in my mouth and I’ve got my finger on the trigger and I like the taste of the gun mental.”

I try not to judge people for their mistakes, because we all make them along the way, but instead I judge them for how they handle those mistakes and rebound. You could make a strong argument no one has ever rebounded so strongly and changed their life in such a drastic way than RDJ.

You know how awesome and charismatic you have to be to grab the attentions of Brad Pitt, Hathaway, Rourke, Sally Hawkins, and Frank Langella? Those people were as silent as the night listening to anything Downey had to say at that round table because he’s that captivating. I feel like there’s too many people out there that just know him from his Marvel days and not for what he came back from. It’s one of the greatest comeback stories maybe ever.

If you’re bored check out his interview with Oprah where he talks about battling back from his addictions.