SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS directed by Guy Ritchie, written by Michele Mulroney and Keiran Mulroney based on the characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle, with Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace and Jared Harris. A Warner Bros. release. 129 minutes. Opens Friday (December 16). For venues and times, see Movies.
Los Angeles – Robert Downey Jr. has a scene in the new Sherlock Holmes movie where he dresses in drag. This shouldn’t be a big deal – his Sherlock Holmes is, after all, a master of disguise, and dressing up as a woman would be a pretty good way of sneaking past a horde of enemy gunmen to save his friend and sidekick, Dr. Watson.
However, this isn’t just Sherlock Holmes in drag. It’s Robert Downey Jr. playing Sherlock Holmes in drag, and that means it’s vaguely ridiculous and pleasantly silly, and it’s all the journalists want to talk about at the press conference for Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows.
“Okay, so I guess we’re not talking about this as being one of the most important films of the year?” Downey answers, enjoying the moment. “Uh, I put on some makeup.”
Downey’s enjoying a lot of moments these days, and he’s earned it. Having spent most of the 1990s alternating stints in rehab with exceptional work in films as diverse as Chaplin, Heart And Souls, Two Girls And A Guy and Wonder Boys, he emerged triumphant in the mid-00s with an electrifying turn in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang opposite Val Kilmer.
That led directly to the role of Tony Stark in the 2008 blockbuster Iron Man – the film that launched the Marvel renaissance that culminates next summer in The Avengers – and the high-wire act that was Tropic Thunder, playing an Australian method actor playing a black American GI. That led to an Oscar nomination and then to Guy Ritchie’s Victorian action hit Sherlock Holmes, which has spawned a sequel of its own.
Which brings us back to this Beverly Hills hotel, where Downey, chewing what seems to be nicotine gum with such force that you can see the muscles in his temples pulse with each bite, is batting the press around like a cat with a new toy.
This is not new behaviour, by the way Downey was just as wry and quick-witted when I first met him in December of 1995 during promotion for Restoration. He joked then about the challenge of staying drug-free on the set of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers.
Someone asks him about the baby he and his wife, Susan – who co-produced A Game Of Shadows and works closely with him on all of his films – are expecting in the new year. “Can’t wait,” he says. “Very excited. More questions for me, please.”
Back to the question of Sherlock Holmes. Me, I find it bizarre that anyone would think to cast Downey as Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous sleuth. The Holmes of the books is a reedy, withdrawn sort who spends all his time in his head, while Downey’s persona tends toward the manic. He’s a wild card, a rake, a guy who can’t keep still – an extrovert playing an introvert. And he seems to know it.
“Well, you just keep Doyle in mind, because I just respect the guy more and more,” he says about building his take on Holmes. “And the other thing is, you just have to let go. You have to let go of the things that are darling to you you have to take the focus off yourself and put it on the shape of the scene and the intention of what everyone else needs. You have to give people something to actually write music to, so you’re not just running your mouth all the time.”
Audiences are responding. Sherlock Holmes grossed half a billion dollars globally, and expectations are high for the sequel. Downey says he’s as surprised to learn that as anyone.
“After the first film worked out pretty good,” he recalls, “we were doing the press tour, talking about things we would like to improve, other directions we could go, blah blah blah. [But] then there’s the reality of doing it. I mean, anybody who’s ever been involved in making the second part to a first that worked – there should be a whole online support team for this. I think the greatest disguise is just disguising ourselves as consummate, by-the-numbers professionals when in fact we’re all kind of incredibly eccentric – and Warner Bros. has given us the opportunity to try to do something that’s complicated.”
There’s also the fact that Downey isn’t the only actor playing Holmes these days. Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat cast Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as a modernized Holmes and Watson in an acclaimed BBC series that’s just entering its second season, and of course Hugh Laurie’s been playing a variation of Conan Doyle’s irascible sleuth on House for the last eight years.
Asked whether he’s familiar with the dozens of actors who’ve played Holmes, Downey comes up with an answer that might read as politically prudent but sounds completely honest in the moment.
“I kinda like everybody,” he says. “Whenever I watch someone doing something, even if it doesn’t turn out so great, I at least admire their intentions and stuff. I know some kind of quintessential performances have happened out there. I’ve heard more about the [Moffat] series than I’ve seen, but I’m intrigued by it. I think it’s important that we’re all part of the same collective honouring this great writer and his stories.”
Interview Clips
Jared Harris and Robert Downey Jr. on the challenges of the shoot:
Downey and Guy Ritchie on their unique bond, and Harris on the game he saw them play:
Noomi Rapace on going Hollywood:
normw@nowtoronto.com
