Robert Downey Jr takes swipe at influencers, slams idea of them becoming ‘stars of the future’
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Robert Downey Jr is seemingly not a big fan of the social media influencer culture, and he’s made it very clear during a recent interview.
The actor appeared on the ‘Conversations for our Daughters’ podcast, where he claimed that it’s “absolute horses**t” to declare them the “stars of the future.”
Robert Downey Jr says people are creating celebrity just by 'rolling a phone on themselves'
He also said that lately “people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves.”
“I don’t look at that as a negative thing. I just look at it as more like the challenge for individuation is being upped,” Downey Jr asserted.
Continuing further, the ‘Iron Man’ star shared that he hopes that “the [larger] part of the youth of – let’s just call it America for locality’s sake – is gonna say, ‘Yeah, but that’s not my thing. I want to go do something, I’m going to make something, I want to build something, I want to educate myself and I want to have more inputs, so whatever my output is, it isn’t just a self-aggrandizing kind of influencer-type thing.”
Robert Downey Jr does not see online influencing as a real career
Downey Jr also went on to slam people who think highly of the influencing career.
“When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,’ I go, ‘I don’t know what world you’re living in, but I think that that is absolute horses**t,’” he noted.
Calling influencers the “evangelical hucksters of the information age”, the Oscar-winning actor accepted that these days he even needs influencers to promote his movies.
“I’ve gotten to know a few of these influencers, and I find many of them grounded, accomplished, cool people,” he revealed.
Robert Downey Jr does not invest much time on social media
Downey Jr himself has a huge social media following, with 57.6 million followers on Instagram. But he shared on the podcast that he tries “not to get too deep down the rabbit hole” because “I don’t wish to be consumed.”
“I know, like people say, ‘Robert, they just love it when you’re just kind of like seeming off the cuff, and they’re getting a glimpse into your life.’ And I go, ‘But yeah, but I’d be manufacturing that aspect for them, so it’s BS,” he added.
The 61-year-old actor, however, recalled an incident involving Jon Favreau and the power of social media.
“I remember Jon Favreau, when we brought the teaser for ‘Iron Man’ to Comic Con, he was tweeting on stage and I saw the audience… This is the new hue where the audience is going to feel like they’re on the steering committee of this thing. OK, so that’s the new landscape,” Downey Jr concluded.
