Robert Downey Jr. is not convinced that influencers will be the next stars of Hollywood. But when the Academy Award-winning actor spoke on the Conversations for Our Daughters podcast, he revealed exactly where he stands on the matter.
“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 horseshit.'”
Downey
He agrees that “nowadays, people can create a celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves.” But he’s not convinced that’s a bad thing. “I just look at it as more like the challenge for individuation is being upped,” Downey said.
However he does make a clear distinction between being seen on the internet and being a star. He noted that he hopes young people opt to learn and create instead of seeking fame and attention online. He says he wants it to be something where they build something. They should educate themselves and produce output. It should not be “just a self-aggrandizing kind of influencer-type thing.”
Downey made the matter especially personal by sharing what he saw happen with his own 14-year-old son. His son was lured into the influencer crowd. He began to ask his viewers for money as he played video games.
“So there’s something about the influencers today that are almost like the Evangelical hucksters of the information age.”
Downey
He didn’t go so far as to write every influencer off on the hook saying the space was still “a little bit of a frontier.” In the course of promoting films, he has gotten to know a few personally. He found “many of them grounded, accomplished, cool people.”
A man with a huge following
The fact that Downey himself has a following of more than 58 million on Instagram has not escaped the internet. He recognized that too, confessing that he tries not to get too deep into social media because I don’t want to be eaten alive by it.
Downey’s return to Marvel was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024, with Avengers: Doomsday slated for December 18, 2026. It’s a major shift, with Downey assuming the role of the MCU’s latest big bad.
As expected, his comments have split the internet. Some fans praised him for defending the traditional craft. Others noted that the influencer economy has already transformed the nature of celebrity for an entire generation. Either way, it’s clear Downey doesn’t beat around the bush.
