Exciting news for Robert Downey Jr. fans as the Hollywood icon secures his inaugural Oscar for his role in the biographical drama ‘Oppenheimer’. Downey Jr. clinched the award in the Best Supporting Actor.
Taking to X, The Academy shared a post and wrote, “Congratulations to Robert Downey Jr. on winning Best Supporting Actor for ‘Oppenheimer’!”
Congratulations to Robert Downey Jr. on winning Best Supporting Actor for ‘Oppenheimer’! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/fFrgo9SiEn
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 11, 2024
He emerged victorious over Sterling K Brown (American Fiction), Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon), Ryan Gosling (Barbie), and Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things).
Upon receiving the award, Downey Jr. stated, “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order.”
He then joked, “I’d like to thank my veterinarian– I meant wife — Susan Downey over there. She found me, a snarling rescue pet, and loved me back to life,” as per PEOPLE.
Subsequently, he expressed gratitude towards Christopher Nolan, the director of Oppenheimer, and his fellow cast members.
“I needed this job more than it needed me. Chris knew it…,” he stated, while acknowledging his co-stars Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy and their collaborative experience. “I stand here a better man because of it.”
Downey Jr. also extended gratitude to his stylist and entertainment lawyer, and concluded his speech by acknowledging his children, Avri, Exton, and Indio, as reported by PEOPLE.
‘Oppenheimer’ secured nominations in 13 categories at the 96th Academy Awards.
The biopic directed by Nolan also claimed the Oscar for Best Film Editing.
Previously, Downey Jr. secured the Best Supporting Actor award at the BAFTA Awards 2024, Critics Choice Awards 2024, and the Golden Globe Awards 2024.
In Nolan’s biopic of the titular physicist portrayed by Cillian Murphy, Downey Jr. portrayed the character of Lewis Strauss. Strauss played a pivotal role in the atomic bomb’s development and later emerged as a political adversary of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The film was helmed by Christopher Nolan.
The biopic, taking place amid World War II, tracks Oppenheimer, renowned as the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” as he grapples with the realization that testing the atomic bomb could trigger a catastrophic event by igniting the atmosphere and leading to global destruction. Nonetheless, he proceeds to push the button despite this understanding.