Robert Downey Jr. on Golden Globes Win for Oppenheimer, Getting Starstruck & Changing Eating Habits

He is a twice Oscar-nominated actor and founding father of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He won a trophy this weekend for his work as Admiral Louis Strauss in Oppenheimer. Please welcome Robert Downey Jr. It's starting to get frightening. Wow, that was quite a reception. I can't help but notice I didn't get like an eighth of that when I came in. But you deserve it. Congratulations, by the way, on the Golden Globe on Sunday night. You know, I heard, um, I have some insight into that. I heard it was unanimous. I heard you won. You got all the votes. None of the other actors got any votes. You got overall. Yeah. Boy, that must feel good for any of my co-nominees watching right now. I'm sure they've forgotten it already. You're right. You mentioned it in your speech. As soon as I heard it, I wanted to ask you about it. Because you said I took a beta blocker before I came up here. Yes, direct quote was, uh, I just dropped a beta blocker so this will be a breeze. Now, by the way, I should have gotten some mega in this. That was a billion dollar moment. It just went right by me. You need to make an endorsement deal with a pharmaceutical company the next time you mention a drug on the air. Wouldn't that be a radical turn? I mean, look, they're fun. They're good once in a while. You can't depend on them. Is that true? Tell me about them because I took one one time and I didn't feel like it did anything. Right, well that's why it's actually okay to take it. I see, okay. It does something but you don't go like, oh my god, I'd like to take 300 of those. It just kind of takes the edge off and it worked a treat. Is it good to take the edge off? I think if you feel like you might panic if your name gets called. Do you know what it's like when you're nominated for a Golden Globe? You guys can relate to this, right? Because I'm surprised by this because you seem like the most confident, maybe the most confident person I've ever met in my whole life. You get nervous in situations like that? Yes, I'm a human person. And sometimes like flying, does anyone else ever bug out a little when they fly? I hate to admit it but I don't like hurtling through the air at 500 miles an hour, it's just too weird a concept. You're Iron Man, how is that possible? I know. This is part of my new campaign to share my humanity with everybody. I like that. It's working. It's very relatable. By the way, I'd like to thank Jaeger for this $200,000. You relate, right? Watch endorsements? When you go to a show like that, when we're talking about nerves, is there anybody you get nervous meeting or are you beyond that? Well, I'll give a little insight into my experience. I look over at one table at Martin Shortcoats. Did you call him? Did you call Martin Shortcoats? I don't know his number. Meryl Streep came over and I wasn't creeping out but I was just like talking to her and like feeling the consistency of her dress shoulder, like downloading the data. Because it was a moment. Oh, there you are. Oh yeah, you really are. Oh my God. Yeah, that's you. I don't remember doing that. Yes, the beta blockers. Those beta blockers work. You know what? No, no. I think she had a little crumb of food on her cheek and I was embarrassed for her so I was just lapping it up. I almost ran right into Julia Garner and then I saw Timothee Chalamet. He had this like sequin number on. I was like, wow, he's kind of amazing. Do people like Timothee Chalamet? And there aren't many people like Timothee Chalamet, let's be honest. He's kind of a unicorn in and of himself. But these young stars who seem to have a very, very bright future ahead of them. Do they ask you for advice? Do you offer advice? I mean, occasionally. Honestly, I just feel like I'm training my replacements. I'm looking at them, I'm like, wow, you're young and super talented. Hi, I'm Grandpa. No, it's kind of like that. Your first Oscar nomination was in 1993, right? Yikes. 1993, you were nominated for Chaplin. Like I said, I've been at this for a minute. That was a big deal for you, yes? That was a big deal. Yeah, and I think I was a bit of a pseudo hipster back then. I was wearing like platform boots. Oh, good news. And I had a, oh dear, there it is. I can't see the boots. Look at that little Shop of Horrors tie I have. Yeah. He had his act together. Anyway. Everybody was wearing this in 93. Oh, yeah, exactly. I mean, it's like I time traveled from the 17th century onto the stage. And I just remember too, like, and the Oscar goes to Al Pacino. And I was like, they must have misread that. Because when you're 26, you're so, you know, when you're in your 20s, you're like, everything's going to go my way forever. And then life kicks you in the sack. So you really, until that moment you heard Al Pacino's name, you felt certain that you were going to win. Nobody else did except me. Which made it even weirder. They're like, in the winners? And people were like. Did you have the thing where you had the speech in your pocket and then you have to destroy it afterwards for fear? I mean, I think if I had a speech in my pocket, it was probably written on a piece of papyrus. Look at that outfit. That's pretty crazy. Wow. That's something else. You know, it's a weird mix of confidence and a lack of confidence that you have. Yeah, it's both. Youth is wasted on the young. How do you feel about this one? Oppenheimer. Now, you know, I'm sure you're aware that you're as far as Las Vegas goes, as far as these websites. You think I'm calling Swifty on this? I think you know probably that you're the heavy favorite to win your category. That's come upon me, and I think you're going to read this. It's super sincere. I have a newfound humility. Look at it. Guillermo, it's translating, isn't it? Yes, it is, yes. You said before Oppenheimer came out, you said you were going to go around to the IMAX theaters and watch the audience, watch the movie. Did you ever do that? That didn't happen. It didn't happen? No, really? Nope. As a matter of fact, it was because there was the strike, and so even it could have seemed like I was promoting the film. I see. And I couldn't even go to a premiere, so in Sag Harbor, New York, I invited pretty much everyone who was in the Hamptons, and for the first time in my whole career, strangely, everyone RSVP'd. And they showed up, and I was like, there's Michael J. Fox, there's Spielberg, and then I sit down, and the movie starts, and I realize I'm sitting next to Paul McCartney, and I was like, dude, Paul McCartney RSVP'd, and he's sitting next to me, and then I was just like smelling his cologne, and I started like breathing in the same rhythm as him. I didn't even watch the movie, because I think you can relate to this too. Like, even just coming here today, I was like, wow, the camel show was in the back, and the strikes were, it's like, this place is such energy, and you run into people, and I still find myself getting starstruck and fanboying out all the time, because it's just incredible that we get to do this. You're talking about Guillermo, I assume, when you came in, and there was obviously a connection there. I still think he's a **** liar. I think you're on to something. No, no. No, well. Only the liar says he's not a liar, Gene. Sorry, but no. We're going to take a break. We're going to take a look at a clip from the movie. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. It's called Oppenheimer. Robert Downey Jr. is with us. We'll be right back. One of our B-29s over the North Pacific has detected radiation. Do we have the filter papers? There's no doubt what this is. White House sensors are down. Wishful thinking, I'm afraid. Are those the long-range detection filter papers? It's an atomic test. The Russians have a bomb. We're supposed to be years ahead of them, but what were you guys doing at Los Alamos? Wasn't security tight? That is Oppenheimer. Robert, come back to theaters at IMAX this month. Nominated for Best Picture. You're nominated. We'll be nominated. I'm jumping ahead of myself. Don't jinx me, Jimmy! Yeah, I know. As host of the show, it's probably inappropriate for me to do that, but I think it's safe to say, well, first of all, your performance is excellent in the movie, and secondly, he itself is excellent. Your character is a real person, deceased now. Louis Frost is how you pronounce his name. I pronounced it wrong earlier. He was a... I have to tell you, he reminds me a little bit in some ways, not him personally, but the idea that there would be backlash against Oppenheimer after he saved us from the Nazis, basically, it reminds me in a way of the backlash Dr. Fauci has received in some ways. That is not inaccurate at all, but then again, if you look at the heated nature of the times, and there was people who just had acrimony towards each other because they had felt blown off in some way, and one of the big parts of the story in Oppenheimer is that there's this moment between him and Einstein, between Oppenheimer and Einstein, that Strauss wants to be part of because he's supporting them at the Institute for Advanced Study, and they just completely disregard his existence, and you see the seeds of discontent being born, and I was like, what can I relate this to? And I was like, remember in the 80s when you'd go up to these velvet ropes at the clubs and no one really, you hadn't really broken yet, and you'd see Scott Baio just get out of a limousine and walk right by you, and you'd be like, Scott, remember when he'd be like, just doesn't even recognize you whenever you're like, I will exact my revenge on Scott Baio. Is that for real? Is that really something you thought about? Any and every time that any of us have felt like we were on the outside looking in or that someone had been this slight or you'd been blown off, it's that weird thing where you think someone's waving at you and you wave back and then you realize and you go, oh my God, this is so humiliating, but this was at a national level and Louis Strauss was head of the Atomic Energy Commission and there was reason for him to believe that Oppenheimer was a little bit too left-leaning and shouldn't be trusted to have a security clearance, but really he just wanted to destroy him. And Chris Nolan, who we were talking about, is just one of the great directors in the history of film. He said, it's like Amadeus, this time you're not Mozart, Killian's playing Mozart, he's Oppenheimer, you're Salieri, you're the other guy who's not as good as him. You're Chachi. Yeah. Or wait, he's Chachi. One of you is Chachi. He was Chachi. I was just, I was a guy who couldn't get in to watch them taping Charles and Charles. So, with Christopher Nolan, who you're right, is just, I mean, his movies are fantastic. Does he, do you guys sit down and you figure out how you're going to approach the character together? Yeah, as always, there's a little requisite humility. I was like, Chris, you've written a perfect script, I think I can fix it. And so, we would shoot stuff and I'd be improvising and this one day just goes, Robert, your embellishments are, anyway, if you get scared out there, just float gently back to the text. I won't, I won't judge you for it. And I was like, this guy just completely, completely got my psyche in a place where I couldn't even be mad at him for telling me to just do less. That is a beautiful way to put it, for sure. Oh boy, he got me good. You've written a cookbook here, which is not something I ever imagined that you would write. This is Cool Foods, this is exciting stuff. And there's a theme, it's not just a cookbook, it teaches you about the things you should eat so that we can stay on the planet. Yeah, this is like, this is like an ADD open it to any page guide to how can I reduce my carbon footprint in a way that's just super simple by changing my habits in the way that I eat. What's the best thing, I know some of the worst things we can eat, what's the best thing we can eat? Well, it always comes down to if you can reduce animal protein a little bit, or if you can put lentils into your burger patty, that makes a big difference. If you eat cashews, they're better than all the other nuts. Rice, the rice industry takes as much energy as the entire aviation industry. It's better to lean into the more ancient grains. Strawberries are great, apples are great, mangoes are fantastic. So, sometimes during the course of the day, I'll just be like, it's easy to make choices between all these options we have, and it winds up making a big difference. This is a real scientist, Tom Costigan, and the reason this book is going to sell is because I'm right there. Because you are the, yeah, Golden Globe winner. this guy is a super genius, he's done a dozen best sellers, and it was this education for me. But there's all these little factoids. Do you cook as well? I can kind of cook, but there's good recipes in there. No, Jimmy, I don't cook, I have a chef. I'm sorry. Well, you know what, you're honest, that's for sure. It's called Cool Food. It's a cookbook for people who don't cook. It's got stuff in it, yeah. I swear to God. No, there are recipes in here that one could follow. Yes, recipes, there's little quick things you can do. Yes. Oh, this is going to make a big difference. Look, even the book is small, it took less material to make the book. I'm thinking this through. Did you know that you have to cut down 11 trees to make one cookbook? I made that up, but yeah. Well, here's the book, it's called Cool Food. Hey, we're not going to be around long, we might as well enjoy ourselves, right? Great, nice messaging. And Oppenheimer, well worth your time, returns to theaters and IMAX this month and is available on digital and 4K. That's Robert Downey Jr., everybody, his book comes out.