Roles Robert Downey Jr. Lost Before Becoming Iron Man

It's estimated that Robert Downey, Jr. has made nearly $250 million from his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That is an astounding career reversal for an actor who started off as a young prodigy, went through a whirlwind of drugs and eventual prison time, and is now reportedly one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood. He got attention for roles in his early 20s like Weird Science (1985) and Back To School (1986). During this period, critic Roger Ebert described his performance as an addict in 1987's Less Than Zero as "so real, so subtle, and so observant that it's scary."

The L.A. Times said that 1992's Chaplin was "the role of his career," and it earned him an Oscar nomination. Four years later, his years of hard partying caught up with him, after a series of arrests and attempts at rehab. A judge in 1997 sent him to prison for 180 days after he violated the terms of his earlier parole. In 1999, he was sentenced to three years of prison after violating the terms of his parole again with more drunken incidents, though he only served a year of it in a rehab facility. He eventually turned things around in 2003, leading to his eventual MCU redemption. 

All of which is to say that Robert Downey Jr. had an incredible journey before being cast as Iron Man, with remarkable highs as well as ruinous lows. Let's take a look at some of the roles he was turned down for before he became one of the cornerstones of the MCU.

Writer-director Cameron Crowe wanted Robert Downey Jr. for the role of Lloyd Dobler in his 1989 classic romance Say Anything. This was a role that Downey actually turned down; of course, it went to John Cusack instead, and the image of him holding up a boom box playing "In Your Eyes" remains one of the most indelible cinematic moments of its era. Downey might have been the first choice, but he wasn't the only actor who had a shot at it: Before Cusack signed on to play Dobler, Christian Slater and Kirk Cameron were also considered for the role.

Speaking on the Howard Stern Show about turning down the role of Lloyd, he was asked if he regretted rejecting it. Downey replied, "I didn't feel sad; I felt it was trite. But it turned out to be a good movie."

Lloyd Dobler is an everyman character. In retrospect, it's difficult to see Downey inhabiting this role, especially given the type of effortlessly charismatic characters he tended to play during this era. Cusack gave Dobler the perfect balance between relatability and charisma, and it remains one of his best performances.

Ron Howard's 1991 firefighting/arson mystery thriller Backdraft is built on the fractious relationship between two firefighter brothers, one a grizzled vet and the other a rookie. There's actual footage of Robert Downey Jr. auditioning for the role of the rookie, macho firefighter Brian McCaffrey. Downey's contemporaries Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves also auditioned for the part, which went to William Baldwin. It was his first starring role, and he gave it a kind of goofy, smirking energy that contrasted co-star Kurt Russell's intense energy. 

Downey would have matched that intensity while still adding an insolent edge to the role. It's a shame he lost out on the part, because he would have elevated it in a way very different from the laid-back approach Baldwin took. 

Downey played a sleazy producer in the 1991 comedy Soapdish instead. The role was originally written for a 45-year-old man, but was rewritten for Downey. This was despite some pushback from the producers of the film, but director Michael Hoffman insisted that Downey would work for the job, referring to him as a "genius improviser."

Early in his career, Robert Downey Jr. lost roles for the usual reasons: he wasn't a good fit, didn't have the kind of chemistry directors wanted, or they simply found someone who they liked better in a particular part. By 1998 and Wild Things, however, Downey was starting to lose roles because of his personal behavior. 

Downey was initially cast for the role of sleazy high school guidance counselor Sam Lombardo precisely because of his bad-boy reputation. Downey would have brought an earnest sleaziness to this role that could have kept the audience guessing in a film that doesn't have a plot as much as it has a series of plot twists.

However, the film's insurance bonders refused to deal with Downey and his issues, so director John McNaughton was forced to recast the role — and Matt Dillon got it, bringing a completely different energy to the part. Instead, Lombardo acquired a relentless, square-jawed seriousness that wound up giving the film much of its campy edge. It's a cult classic today thanks to that campiness.

After his arrest in December of 2000, Robert Downey Jr. was fired from the film America's Sweethearts. Directed by Joe Roth and co-written by Billy Crystal, the project would have seen Downey playing the male half of America's favorite acting couple (Eddie Thomas), with Catherine Zeta-Jones playing the other half (Gwen Harrison). The problem is that they've had a horrible breakup, and it's up to Gwen's publicist sister (played by Julia Roberts) to get them back together in order to promote a new film.

Downey was apparently fired because of the incident, the potential for him to return to prison, and the fact that he was uninsurable at this point. As he'd done with Say Anything, John Cusack took over a part that was originally meant for Downey, assuming the role of Eddie. Cusack was solid in this part and had established chemistry with Zeta-Jones after they appeared briefly in High Fidelity together, but he didn't quite have the narcissistic movie star swagger that Downey could have brought to the film. 

Ten years after he played the role of William Shakespeare's Hamlet onscreen in 1990, Mel Gibson was set to direct his friend Robert Downey Jr. in a stage production of the play. Downey might have seemed like an unusual choice to some, but his take on the Melancholy Dane would have undoubtedly been fascinating. Gibson played Hamlet in his movie as though he was an unhinged action hero (in other words, like many of his characters). Downey could certainly have given the character the same kind of visceral thrills in his plot against his stepfather, only with a different depth and range of emotions.

Scheduled for January of 2001, the play got scuttled with the December 2000 arrest that also ended Downey's stint on Ally McBeal. He eventually wound up leaving the project at the same time he blew his rehearsals for God, The Devil, And Bob. This will forever remain a tantalizing "What if?" in his career. 

Robert Downey Jr. was set to star in the 2003 Woody Allen comedy Anything Else alongside Winona Ryder — another actor who had her own embarrassing public issues around the turn of the century. The film was based on Allen's own experience as a young writer, meeting an older writer who was a mentor to him; Allen was to play the mentor, and Downey was supposed to be the Allen stand-in character, Jerry Falk. Instead, Jason Biggs got the part. While Biggs nailed the neuroses of the character, he wasn't quite able to give the character the depth and pathos that Downey might have brought to it. The character's self-destructive qualities also matched Downey's experiences closely.

Downey got far enough into the process to take a physical, but the deductible for the insurance was simply too high for the producers to cover. At this point, Downey had staged a bit of a career comeback; his old Air America buddy Mel Gibson paid for Downey's insurance so he could star in The Singing Detective. The producers of Gothika withheld most of his fee until after the movie was completed. Allen was angry about the missed opportunity, saying "I found the whole thing outrageous. He's a great talent, he'd just done two movies with no problem and we were crushed that the insurance company was being so difficult."