MCU Acting Was Some of My Best Work

Robert Downey Jr. may be a predicted Oscars contender for his turn in “Oppenheimer,” but the actor is crediting his decade-long MCU career among his best performances.

During the “Literally! With Rob Lowe” podcast, Downey said that his tenure as Iron Man is “some of the best work I will ever do” onscreen, yet the performance “went a little bit unnoticed because of the genre.” (Downey has also said Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” was the “best film I’ve ever been in” and, on the podcast, called “Tropic Thunder” his “favorite movie ever.”)

After Downey’s Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, was killed off in “Avengers: Endgame,” Downey produced and starred in box office flop “Doolittle,” which he admitted made him feel “exposed” after being in the Marvel franchise.

“I felt so exposed after being in the cocoon of Marvel where I think I did some of the best work I will ever do, but it went a little bit unnoticed because of the genre,” Downey said. “[I] did myself a favor, because the rug was pulled so definitively out from underneath me and all the things that I was leaning on as opposed to what my understanding of confidence and security was, boy did they evaporate. And it rendered me teachable.”