Robert Downey Jr. & Wife Susan Get Real About Marriage, Plus: He Talks Future of ‘Iron Man’

You know what's so amazing is just how happy you are in her presence. It's so beautiful. Yeah, you just make everything better. Why was this the perfect film to work on together? Because she said so. Is that the answer also the secret to your marriage? No, there's a lot more give and take. I don't know, it turns out it was a good instinct you had, sweetheart. Well, it was fun to pick something that our kids could see. Because even though he's let our son see the Marvel movies, even though... Certain of them, yeah. Certain, certain ones, yeah. You know, they weren't able to see any of the movies that we'd worked on. And so it was really fun to do something that... I think there was a degree of difficulty, too, that I was excited about with all the visual effects and creating worlds and all that kind of stuff that even with something like Sherlock we didn't get to do. So there were a lot of reasons that it was a good choice. And it is a magical film for kids. I know kids are always the toughest critics, too, and quite honest. So what did they think? They were very happy. Good. Yeah, they were very happy. And I think this will be the first time we bring our kids to a premiere, correct? Yes. That's ours. Oh, wow. No, ever. They haven't been to one. Oh, wow. Period. That's really big. Did they give you instant feedback? Did they straight away tell you what they think? Well, they did after this. Because with kids they just want to see it again. And that's always a good sign. That's right. But Exton in particular liked it, although he's been behind the scenes looking at every bit of marketing and stuff. And with kids you can't always read them because you'll show them something and sometimes they don't always tell you something right away. And then later that afternoon they'll be like, I really liked when Yoshi was saying blah, blah. And you're like, wow, he actually paid attention, remembered the name, the whole thing. So yeah, they're a good little test group. Yeah, that must feel extra special. Robert, for you, why did you want to be Doolittle? What do you like about him? I always go, like, why this movie, why now, why bother? And then honestly I looked out the window and these alpacas are looking at me and our goats and our Oreo cows and our, you know. Pigs. Pigs, the coony coony pigs. You have coony coony pigs? We do. They're so cute. They're amazing. They're massive. It just felt kind of synchronistic, you know. And also, you know, we don't like going too long without having an extremely difficult project to do together, whether it's a movie or a kid or figuring out, you know, how to have date night or whatever. So I want it being a really kind of nice vibe, very arduous, a very long process. We learned a lot. And it's so nice now because I always, all I care about is when people see it that they like it. And so today is the first day and now we're starting to promote it. People are like, yeah, we're seeing it, we're liking it. Yeah. Because we just want to be, you know, proud parents. Of course. We should be. And I didn't realize you had so many animals. So aside from the pigs, you have alpacas? Yep. What else? We have two pigs, four alpacas, four goats, two cows, 30 chickens, two cats, and a bunny. And a bunny. Well, we actually have a lot of bunnies, but there's one that is, there's one that's in a hutch. Yeah, there's only one we're claiming. The rest are free roaming. What? So you are Doolittle, basically. Well. Do you talk to them? I mean, I think we all think we're talking to our animals. Like, I came in the kitchen this morning. She goes, look who's here. And I looked over my shoulder. Okay. And our cat, Dart, was just sitting there looking at me longingly. And I was like, what's up, buddy? And then he looked away. Like, I just happened to be looking at you. I don't have something. Maybe he wanted a snack. They always want a snack. Okay. Yeah. No, Monty yells at me every morning. That's our other cat. He yells at me because I, like, haven't gotten up soon enough. I'm sorry. My washing machine is on the blank. What is going on? This is amazing. I did not realize you had so many animals. And you do talk to animals. I feel like everybody. We all want to believe we can talk to animals. I mean, look. They have emotions. We just got this rescue goat named Flash. And I swear Flash is, like, a human or a dog or something. I mean, it's not. The rescue said he's the dog of goats. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when she walks over. He's got, like, a smile on his face. You talk to him. And, like, I don't know. It's great. Come on. He's created quite a stir with the other three. With cute boots. And trigger and memo. Yeah. The whole. There's a hierarchy kind of thing that's going on. But they'll figure it out. We're managing it. We're trying. Your household sounds so fun. I mean, your kids are so lucky. Seriously. What a life. It's so good. Now, there are so many rumors still out there. Fan theories. People want to see Iron Man come back. Could it ever happen? Yeah. Anything could happen. I'm really enjoying. Oh, my God. What a headline that little comment's going to be. She knows. She knows how this goes. As far as I'm concerned, I hung up my guns. And I'm good to let it go. I also think that Marvel is on this journey now of they're trying a bunch of other stuff. And, you know, I'm excited for them to see how all that goes. And it's hard to project. But, you know, we've got a bunch of other stuff. Yeah. You've got Perry Mason. Right? You've got the AI series on YouTube. That is true. Which looks so cool. Yeah. Do you both have a fascination with AI? I would call it a curiosity more than anything. It's so prevalent in ways that, like, I certainly didn't know before the series. And we started exploring all the different areas. I hosted it. But she's the one who actually learned all about it. So she's the brains. Yes. I was like the journalist out in front. Like, guess what? Someone's about to learn something. You did a great job. Very cool. Yeah, it was. It's always nice. You know, they say if you want to learn about something, then go get out in front of it. Yeah. We'll try and tell a story about it, which is what the series is trying to do. It's trying to get in and sort of take a human look at the way that it's affecting us and all these different elements. And it's still really young, you know. It's going to be evolving. But it was fun to dip in and see all different aspects of our lives that are being affected and these great companies trying to really do something better in our world with AI. That's the focus that we had, the angle. I know there's a lot of doom and gloom things, but the purpose of the series was to look at where is it actually helping us. Oh, I love that. Yeah. You guys have done, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think 10 films together, around 10 films at this point. I think it's like eight or nine. Okay. Which is close to 10. Almost 10 films together. Most people wouldn't make it through one film together if they were married. Right. Yeah. How? What is the secret? I think it helps that we met making a movie. Okay. And then we were engaged and, you know, young love. Well, she was young anyway. Shooting all night for this movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. And then it's just always been our kind of gypsy circusy lifestyle. And now we have all the domesticity. So now it's a little bit more like it's not a distraction, but it's like we get to get out of the house if we have a reason to go somewhere. Okay. That's great. I also think there's just a respect that we have for each other and what we bring. Because we're not doing the same thing. You know, I'm not in front of the camera. No, she's watching the monitors and telling me when I suck. Is that how she says it? Does she actually say you suck? No, she'll be like that. She'll be like, take the gum out of your mouth, Mr. Professional. Yeah. He never sucks. It's just whether he has his Nicorette in his mouth or not. That's the only thing that really pisses me off. You can't. They didn't have Nicorette in the 1800s. I'm sorry. I went through some old interviews, and I loved when I first read this. Because a lot of my friends who are married said when they met their partner, they knew. And in an interview I read, you said, possibly, you said that when you first met Robert, that you thought he was maybe a little bit strange. Like it wasn't an instant thing. Is that true? He is a little bit strange. That hasn't changed. She said I was so much hotter than all your other boyfriends. That's exactly what she meant. That's such a dude response. No, I mean, he's a weird idiot. He's not even felt like an idiot saying it. No, I mean, but there is no one in the world like Robert, which is great. I don't see that about any of us. No, but it's a little different with you. You're very unique. And you've got this amazing energy and all these wonderful things. I'm looking right down the barrel. I know, I know. I actually didn't even think he was that cute until about, like, I don't know, like two thirds of the way through the movie we were doing. And one day I was like, wow, he's actually. Was it when I dressed up and we went out to dinner in Montreal? Yeah. Was that your first date? No, because I was still producing the movie, but it was, I was like, should we wait for, you know, this trainer that he was using that we'd always hang out with? He'd be like. Carly Pasternak. No. He's great. You know, and I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, it's not a three top. This is a date. We were, we just had slightly different pages at that point, but you know. Okay. That's okay. We have a quick rapid fire couples quiz for you. Susan, do you remember your first date? Well, again, it's fuzzy. It's fuzzy. Yeah, it's great. Okay. Do you remember what the first date was? Yeah. It's what I just said it was. Clear as a bell. All right. What is Robert's cheat food or guilty pleasure? Oh my God. Well, pizza with like pasta carbonara on top would be his ideal thing. But at night he sneaks down and has almond butter because he's an actor and has to look nice for the camera. There's two things I can't go without. Coffee, coffee, and you guessed it, coffee. Okay. That's not guilty. That's not guilty pleasure though. Really? What about Susan? Does she have a cheat food or a guilty pleasure? Caviar. Oh, that's a fancy one. She's bougie. It's awful though. It's like I'm vegan who had caviar. That's like the worst. It's fine. It's balanced. You need a little balance in your life. It makes it true cheat. What about Robert's favorite TV show to binge? Does he have a binge? Oh, he's good with binging. He actually has the time to do it. He, The Crown, but we also, we did- We did Morning Show and we dug it. Morning Show. It was so good. Although we couldn't binge it because we had to wait. I know. Which was frustrating. We binged that. Not like your caviar binges. It's disgusting. Can you really binge on caviar? No. How much can you eat? You've got a good idea. She is so measured and so disciplined. It doesn't even make sense that you would eat caviar. No, but we just came off the holiday. Maybe you're the strange one. For sure. I'm with you. You guys are amazing. Seriously. I want to hang out with you all day, but you're busy. So there's that. Congratulations on this. Can't wait to see Perry Mason and everything you're doing. Oh, yeah. That turned out great. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.