GETTING A CLUE HE'S NO OPTIMIST YET, BUT ROBERT DOWNEY JR. IS FEELING GOOD ABOUT 'THE SINGING DETECTIVE' - AND HIMSELF.Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer How do you tell a guy determined for so long to cultivate an ``I'm a waste of DNA'' image that he's actually looking like he's back on his game? If the self-abaser is Robert Downey Jr., you let him confirm that things are looking up. Which Downey sort of does, albeit reluctantly. ``I have every reason to be proud of (this movie). I won't fight it,'' says Downey. ``I'm proud of how it plays. I'm proud of the people sitting around me when I'm watching it.'' The movie in question is ``The Singing Detective,'' a comeback film if ever one existed. Downey plays Dan Dark, a bitter novelist confined con·fine v. con·fined, con·fin·ing, con·fines v.tr. 1. To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at hand. See Synonyms at limit. to a hospital bed who inserts himself into the 1950s-era Philip Marlowe-esque potboilers he's creating. In real life, he's berating the hospital staff and battling a disfiguring skin disease that covers his entire body. In his fantasies, a clear-skinned Dark fronts a dance band and eludes shady customers. The screenplay is by the late Dennis Potter, whose seven-hour 1985 British miniseries min·i·se·ries n. pl. miniseries 1. A televised dramatic production, as of a novel or film, shown in a number of episodes. 2. Sports A short series of performances or athletic contests. of the same name starred Michael Gambon. Potter, who completed the film version two years before his death in 1994, transplanted the action to L.A. Downey, whose drug-related arrests and jail time kept him out of circulation for the last three years, was attached to the project long before director Keith Gordon (``Waking the Dead'') came along. Producer Mel Gibson Noun 1. Mel Gibson - Australian actor (born in the United States in 1956) Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson, Gibson U.S.A., United States, United States of America, US, USA, America, the States, U.S. , a friend of Downey's since the two worked in ``Air America'' together, kept the option and even took a supporting role supporting role n → second rôle m supporting role n → ruolo non protagonista as a hospital psychiatrist. ``Basically, Mel was the insurance,'' says Gordon. ``Robert was uninsurable uninsurable Health insurance A high-risk person without health care coverage through private insurance who falls outside the parameters of risks of standard health underwriting practices. See Underwriting. at the time, although I think he is now since he's proven he's back, he's clean, and he's doing good. This whole thing is really Mel giving a gift to someone he loved as a person and believed in as an artist.'' According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the director, Downey has changed considerably from the wacky 19-year-old with whom Gordon co-starred in the Rodney Dangerfield Rodney Dangerfield (November 22, 1921 – October 5, 2004), born Jacob Cohen, was an American comedian and actor, best known for the catchphrase "I don't get no respect" and his monologues on that theme. comedy ``Back to School'' in 1985. ``He was all manic man·ic adj. Relating to, affected by, or resembling mania. energy then, not that he doesn't have a lot now,'' says Gordon. ``But now there's this deep intelligence from someone who is very deep both emotionally and intellectually. It's actually a wonderful marriage, because he still has all the energy of a 19-year-old.'' The son of director Robert Downey Sr. (``Up the Academy,'' ``A Touch of Greatness,'') Downey Jr. has long been one of Hollywood's most critically respected actors. Graduating from teen roles in films like ``Less Than Zero,'' ``The Pick-Up Artist'' and ``Weird Science,'' he scored an Oscar nomination playing the title role in ``Chaplin.'' Struggles with alcohol and drug addictions drug addiction or chemical dependency Physical and/or psychological dependency on a psychoactive (mind-altering) substance (e.g., alcohol, narcotics, nicotine), defined as continued use despite knowing that the substance causes harm. led to numerous arrests and court appearances in the mid- to late '90s. He was fired from an extended guest-starring role on Fox's ``Ally McBeal'' after a drug-related parole violation. On a recent Thursday, Downey - who also appears in the Halle Berry Halle Maria Berry (IPA: /ˈhæliː ˈbɛriː/) (born August 14, 1966[1]) is an American actress. thriller ``Gothika,'' which comes out Nov. 21 - curled curl v. curled, curl·ing, curls v.tr. 1. To twist (the hair, for example) into ringlets or coils. 2. himself around a hotel suite sofa, and cut loose: Q: An entire day of talking about yourself and a movie as twisted as ``The Singing Detective.'' Are you fried? A: This is a happy fried. What do they say? ``Good friends, good work.'' You know when you actually show up for something, it's so much better than when it's all for a movie that sucks! But that's not the case. Q: Did you ever meet Potter? A: I'm certain I didn't and it's really weird, too. When I was doing ``Chaplin,'' I had the opportunity to meet him and I didn't even get that it would have been an honor, but I feel like I've met him. I feel like I've somehow or other corresponded with him psychically. If nothing else, I've served his material to the best of my ability. I didn't even really ``get'' this movie until I saw it in Toronto. (Dark's) in the closet and then he comes out, in that flash. He comes out of the closet, he's in his worst nightmare of the disease and as a detective. I didn't understand what that meant. You know why I didn't get it? Because I hadn't gotten it yet personally that there's that fusion of denial and attachment and disease and expectation and (expletive) misery and all that (expletive). I've only recently made a departure from pessimism pessimism, philosophical opinion or doctrine that evil predominates over good; the opposite of optimism. Systematic forms of pessimism may be found in philosophy and religion. , so of course I was limited. Q: And that departure happened ... how, exactly? A: I fell in love. I was wrong. That's my mantra mantra (măn`trə, mŭn–), in Hinduism and Buddhism, mystic words used in ritual and meditation. A mantra is believed to be the sound form of reality, having the power to bring into being the reality it represents. (laughs). I mean I fell in love with this gal. I said, ``Listen, the optimist believes the future is uncertain. The pessimist pes·si·mism n. 1. A tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view: "We have seen too much defeatism, too much pessimism, too much of a negative approach" is always right and derives no satisfaction from that. So you go and be an optimist if you like. I'm a pessimist because clearly the pessimist has more information.'' Q: Did she buy it? A: No. She told me I was full of (expletive) and I had never really fallen in love (laughs). Three weeks later I was so optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op she was alarmed. Q: Back to ``The Singing Detective.'' Did you watch the miniseries? A: I watched it and then I stayed away from it. It's like your first trip to Amsterdam when you go into a sex shop. It's not like you can ever get away from those images once you open up the sex magazine. In a slightly more creative way, seeing the series I was like, ``Wow, I can't believe this was 20 years ago.'' It's kind of like my dad's (Robert Downey Sr.'s) movies, because I was looking at one of them the night before last, and it was still innovative, still really funny, still absurd. Q: Can the nonpessimists in the audience ``get'' the movie? A: From the very beginning, it's like a (expletive) cathouse. They're like, 'Oh it's going to be this.' And then it's not this, it's that. I don't think that's strictly urban development. I think people are just wise. Three and half billion years of DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. and we're still acting like we've got to play to the dummies. What an insult, you know? I've seen your eyes. You're evolved, right? Q: Trying to. A: OK. Hope and effort. There it is. But you know what? There's got to be some payoff. I just never bought it. Every day the sun came up, it was some testament to God's wrath. Not true. But what was I doing from sunrise to sundown? What was I doing from sundown to sunrise? Wasn't sleeping. I was doing that (expletive) and loving it, chief! And that's where we are. The film's coming out now, and I'm not a pathetic waste of life presently. The audience likes it or gets it. Sometimes both. And I've never been in a film that necessarily worked where I was centrally located in its cast. Q: Not ``Chaplin''? A: ``Chaplin'' didn't work as a film very well; it was too episodic episodic sporadic; occurring in episodes. e. falling a paroxymal disorder described in Cavalier King Charles spaniels in which affected dogs, starting at an early age, experience episodes of extensor rigidity, possibly brought on by stress. e. . Robert Altman said it: ``God, the (worst) part is now nobody can go make a great Chaplin movie, because they already blew $40 million.'' I said, ``You know what? (Expletive) you. You think 'Short Cuts' is some work of art?'' He goes, ``No, I'm a dinosaur. I'll leave a puddle of oil on the floor in a couple of minutes. I'm just saying what I think.'' Q: Are you enough of a reformed pessimist to accept it when people say your movie's decent? A: I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why I still feel duty-bound to err to the side of critical. It's a recent transition. Sometimes I'm always thinking more smoke, mirrors and pixie dust See AFC. as opposed to content and trusting yourself. Q: Who would you need to hear it from to believe it? A: Other people. And beyond that, my ex. She's never (lied to) me. My gal. She's a super-creative person at a super-cool company and she understands story. There's like everything from the really organic shoot-from-the-hip people to the really organic shoot-from-the-4-point-0 people. Either side of that spectrum is going to get my attention. Q: All that scrutiny for so long. All that sympathy and support from so many people within your industry. Did it feel like pity? How'd you deal with it? A: If it's coming and I feel like it's charged with some of their own environmental toxins, then it's like, ``Ah, (expletive), not that again.'' If it comes and it's real, that's even almost worse because I'm just trying to get real with myself. I don't want people behavioral-modeling rigorous honesty to me, I don't even understand the ... principle. But you know what? I'm acting like I know what I'm talking I'm Talking was a 1980s Australian funk-pop rock band, noted for launching vocalist Kate Ceberano. History After the break-up of the Melbourne-based experimental funk band Essendon Airport in 1983, members Robert Goodge (guitar), Ian Cox (saxophone) and Barbara Hogarth about, so let me just stop. I don't get it. I don't understand yet how I feel, how I react this way. I know sometimes I have an aberrant aberrant /ab·er·rant/ (ah-ber´ant) (ab´ur-ant) wandering or deviating from the usual or normal course. ab·er·rant adj. 1. reaction to good will. Evan Henerson, (818) 713-3651 evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 4 photos Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) A different TUNE Robert Downey Jr. picks up the pieces with `The Singing Detective' Steve Granitz/WireImage.com (2) no caption (Robert Downey Jr.) (3) ``... now there's this deep intelligence from someone who is very deep both emotionally and intellectually. It's actually a wonderful marriage, because he still has all the energy of a 19-year-old.'' Keith Gordon director of ``The Singing Detective,'' on Robert Downey Jr. in 1985 and today (4) Mel Gibson was a producer of ``The Singing Detective'' and took an almost unrecognizable supporting role as a psychiatrist. |
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