Robert Downey Jr. won the award for Best Supporting Actor at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards over the weekend, but instead of giving a typical acceptance speech, the actor chose to quote from some of his critics.
The 58-year-old won for his part in the summer blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” beating out contenders Sterling K. Brown for “American Fiction,” Robert De Niro for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Ryan Gosling for “Barbie,” Charles Melton for “May December,” and Mark Ruffalo for “Poor Things.”
Downey Jr. dug up some of the negative reviews from his past performances and shared them from the stage during Sunday’s broadcast of the awards show.
“I was thinking this morning, I love critics. … You know, they’ve given me such beautiful feedback, really just so many great moments, and some of it is so poetic,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I just want to share some of their thoughts with you over the years.”
“The first one is kind of like Haiku: ‘Sloppy, messy and lazy.’ The next one is more metaphoric: ‘Like Pee-Wee Herman emerging from a coma.’ This was from a Brit: ‘A puzzling waste of talent.’ And lastly, and this one lingered: ‘Amusing as a bed-locked fart,’” Downey Jr. continued.
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He continued with a word of thanks for his “Oppenheimer” co-stars, whom he referred to as his “Oppenhomies.”
“Every day of filming was like having my ego’s ass handed to me at the door, and I think it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” he quipped.
The actor played Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s historical drama. Strauss was a trustee at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and serves as the primary antagonist against Cillian Murphy’s titular character, J. Robert Oppenheimer, as he wrestles with the moral dilemma of creating the atomic bomb.
“Oppenheimer” raked in more than $955 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing film of 2023, the highest-grossing World War II-related film ever, the highest-grossing biographical film, and the second-highest-grossing R-rated film.
The biographical thriller was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and eight Critics Choice Awards. It’s also expected to be announced as a nominee for the 96th Academy Awards.