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Actor Robert Downey Jr. has a message for today’s internet influencers: Get off my lawn!
In a recent appearance on Bran Ferren’s “Conversations for Our Daughters” podcast, the 61-year-old star admitted this new crop of DIY entertainers seem like “hucksters” to him.
‘I don’t know what world you’re living into, but I think that that is absolute horses**t.’
Downey added that the proliferation of online personalities seeking celebrity without effort has made it harder for anyone with talent to stand out.
Phoning it in
“People can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves,” he said. “And 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.”
The New York native also said that he hopes young people can resist falling into a “self-aggrandizing kind of influencer-type thing.”
Not that the “Iron Man” star dislikes all social media strivers. He revealed that he has even gotten to know a few and found them grounded and accomplished. Still, don’t expect him to buy in to the idea that they’re the stars of tomorrow.
“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 into, but I think that that is absolute horses**t.”
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– YouTube
Stream me up
Downey noted that even his own teenage son has gotten “caught up” in the influencer world.
“Next thing you know, it’s like, ‘Hey, if you like the way I’m playing this video game, do you wanna send me a donation?’ And really, it becomes a religion.”
“There’s something about the influencers today are almost like the Evangelical hucksters of the information age,” he continued.
“At the same token, it’s different because we’re playing in this new territory, and so it’s a little bit of a frontier, and I don’t really have a judgment on it.”
For his part, the veteran performer said he resists industry pressure to reveal more of himself online, saying it feels inauthentic.
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]M. Tran/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Stark reality
He also worries about being reduced to disposable content for insatiable clickbait culture.
“I don’t wish to be consumed,” he explained.
The father of three also pondered the “turnover” from traditional media to online that many believe took place in the late 2000s.
“There’s something about this … there’s something about that era that because we were just in it, and you know how it always feels like 2009 was ten years ago.”
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