When Robert Downey Jr. stepped into the lights shining on the Palm Springs Convention Center stage to present the Desert Palm Achievement Award to his Oppenheimer co-star Cillian Murphy, he revealed he hadn’t yet written a speech.
“I feel kind of like I blew it because I didn’t write anything and I’m not going to make an excuse, I’m just going to offer an explanation. I was distracted [by the] holidays, I had a head cold, and then there was two earthquakes,” he said, referencing recent shakes in Japan and California, “that activated my crippling seismology anxiety.” But seriously, he managed to jot down some “broad stroke stuff” and was “just going to fucking wing it.”
Judging by the response in the room during the Palm Springs Film Awards presented by the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Downey nailed the tribute to his colleague who toplined Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed film from Universal Pictures.
“He is an anomaly. He’s been an actor’s actor for over 20 years and nobody dislikes this guy. That’s not easy,” said Downey, who, in addition to being universally well-liked in the industry, has earned raves and awards attention for his turn as Lewis Strauss. “His character work and his onscreen intensity never fail. Captain captivating, it’s fucking titillating.”
Downey called Nolan “a long game guy” and then described the industry response to the news that his frequent collaborator Murphy would be taking the lead role as J. Robert Oppenheimer in the story of the creation of the atomic bomb. “It’s that kind of generational casting decision that gives you chills, just the potential of it. … When I heard the announcement, I said, ‘This is going to be event cinema. And then this guy had to prove it.”
Spoiler alert: Downey said he proved it. “I’ve been in this game for 40 something years and I’ve never had the experience like watching Cillian carry the weight of J. Robert on his back for the whole time with his heart on his sleeve and all the required sophistication and restraint.”
Murphy, who admitted that he doesn’t like talking about himself, paid Downey some compliments in return to kick off his speech. In addition to praising his work in the film as an actor “of staggering capability,” he said the audience “should also know that he’s one of the kindest, most compassionate, generous, funniest humans I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”
He then turned his attention to Nolan and his producing partner and wife Emma Thomas by calling the last 20 years of working with the two of them “a mind-bending, life-changing experience.” Murphy said that when he received the script for Oppenheimer, he knew that it was an opportunity that comes along “probably once in your career if you’re lucky. … I didn’t forget that for a moment. I knew it was responsibility and I just went for it.”
In closing, the private actor thanked his family. “Two-thirds of them are sitting down there. We had to leave one of them at home [because of exams], but just thanks for putting up with me, putting up with the half me, shadow me and being absent me, the remains of me when I’m doing a film like this, and work in general.”
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