In 2014, Oscar-winning Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu gave a fascinating interview to Deadline about his film Birdman, and what the comic-book/superhero film genre meant for the movie industry and for culture in general. Agree or disagree with Inarritu, he made an excellent case for why adult fans of the superhero genre should “grow up,” why those films represent a kind of cultural genocide and why the messages of those films tends to be capitalistic and right-wing. Because every actor who works for Marvel seems to have paper-thin skin about people criticizing Marvel movies, Robert Downey Jr. decided to clap back on Inarritu’s interview months later. And when I say “clap back,” I mean “RDJ was racist as f–k.” RDJ said: “I respect the hell out of him. I think for a man whose native tongue is Spanish to be able to put together a phrase like cultural genocide just speaks to how bright he is.” Yeah. it was f–king awful. It was a huge story at the time. Well, Inarritu was asked about RDJ’s now seven-year-old comments:
Iñarritu entered rarified company when he won back-to-back directing Oscars for “Birdman” and “The Revenant,” an experience that he said made it harder for him to sort out his next creative chapter. “It absolutely made me feel more vulnerable,” he said. “This relationship with success is always complicated. It poisons you and it puts you much more on the spot, so you become an easier target.” He felt a queasy disconnect between his Mexican heritage and growing Hollywood stature. “I may be too American for the Mexicans and too Mexican for the Americans,” he said. “There’s a moment that I just feel that.”
The movie’s risk-taking is an implicit challenge to more conservative storytelling standards. While promoting “Birdman,” Iñarritu told a journalist that he thought Marvel movies were a form of “cultural genocide,” which prompted Robert Downey Jr. to retort, “For a man whose native tongue is Spanish to be able to put together a phrase like ‘cultural genocide’ just speaks to how bright he is.” The director still smarts over that one.
“It was like ‘Oh, you guys from your banana country,’” he said. “If I were from Denmark or Sweden, I might be seen as philosophical, but when you’re Mexican and you say things, you’re pretentious.”
Exactly – it’s not just that Inarritu was not a native English speaker, it’s that he is a native Spanish-speaker from Mexico. He’s absolutely right that RDJ would not have said “wow, he’s English is so good” about a (white) Swedish director or (white) German director. Anyway, just another f–king reminder that RDJ never apologized for his racist f–king comment. And another reminder that Inarritu understood the politics of so many of those superhero films.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Robert Downey Jr. attends the ‘Dolittle’ – Special Screening at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, England. Saturday 25th January 2020. -,Image: 563108231, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu attends the photocall for “Bardo” at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 01, 2022 in Venice, Italy.,Image: 718352803, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Maria Laura Antonelli / AGF Foto / Avalon
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- Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu attends the photocall for “Bardo” at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 01, 2022 in Venice, Italy.,Image: 718352853, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Maria Laura Antonelli / AGF Foto / Avalon
So disgusting. And Robert Downey Jr. defended Chris Pratt. And is helping Armie Hammer. Is best friends with Mel Gibson. See a pattern here?
I do now. Ugh.
Thanks for connecting dots that I hadn’t.
Me neither. So another POS in Hwood
….and Johnny Depp
RDJ is not a good guy. He hides behind his past addiction to show a kind of vulnerability but he’s an entitled rich guy racist. Sad life when he could be so much more.
I admit I’ve been blown away that a C-list actor who wasn’t mean to see his 30th birthday has reinvented himself so profoundly as an A-list star, but this is a good reminder that overcoming personal demons doesn’t necessarily make someone a hero.
Perfect comment right here.
Well said and amen.
Notice this kind of redemptive arc only ever happens to men.
Wow I used to be a huge RDJ fan untill about two minutes ago!
I did not know about his comment but now I am canceling him. He is a selfish prick.
Superficial comment of the day: Innaritu is so effing handsome!
And yeah, RDJ is… something.
Funny, I didn’t get the impression that Rbt. Downy Jr. was calling the director pretentious. I got the impression he was saying, “Oh, isn’t that cute, you know big words for someone whose native language is Spanish.”
I understood it like that, too.
Not that it’s any better.
I think RDJ would have insulted a Danish or Swedish director too, in the same “dumb foreigners and their lefty ideology” way, because that’s what I believe he was trying to say when he emphasised the phrase cultural genocide.
Ditto. Still racist, but different implications. I’m disgusted that he said that. Imo, RDJ’s comment is like when some white people would always say I – or substitute any Black person who could coherently put 5 words together- am very articulate or so well-spoken. Phrases put on every performance review I got, which was baffling bc I did graduate from college but ok. These phrases became nationally prevalent when Obama became Prez, which was still offensive but somewhat amusing bc of the absurdity of it all. He graduated from Harvard Law School and was the 1st Black editor of the Harvard Law Review so that should be the bare minimum right? Yet somehow, some seemed truly shocked…
Not a fan of RDJ and his racist comment. He really should apologize.
On a separate note, Inarritu was being a hypocrite. Birdman is an empty, soulless movie that tried to be about something but was really about nothing–just like every superhero movie ever made.
@MF – Calling Iñarritu a hypocrite seems harsh to me. Obviously, totally ok if you did not care for Birdman and it didn’t resonate with you, but on the other hand, there are others like myself, who the film did resonate with and respect the purpose and meaning in the film. I think he is sincere in his film making (not perfect, but sincere) which counters the idea of the cynicism present in hypocrisy.
We do agree to RDJ should apologize. It was such a insulting comment and one that is all too familiar to so many Latinos like myself. For many of the Hollywood elite like RDJ, there is an in inherent bias in that they will talk about how great Latinos are, predicated on those they depend on for cleaning their houses, managing their properties and taking care of their children, etc. but wow, if you rise to their level or station, the racism really comes out.
I’m trying to be harsh. Birdman was an entertaining movie and a great technical achievement but as a storytelling vehicle, it was soulless thing and it was not what it was pretending to be about. That makes Inarritu a bit of a hypocrite, even if I do like him as a director. 🤷♀️
https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/03/26/film-crit-hulk-smash-ignorance-the-expected-virtue-of-birdman
RDJ’s ongoing support for the many male creeps of Hollywood is enough for me to write him off before I ever even heard about this bullshit 10 years ago!
Love Inarritu’s thoughtful comments.
And so true, why tf are Marvel stars so freaking defensive (I always die of cringe remembering them rallying around Pratt after the “Worst Chris” jokes). When you make Disney look chill, you need to calm down.
I have to assume they get defensive because a) they love the paychecks & b) they view themselves as artists, so any questions about the quality of the art they’re producing or whether it’s healthy for cinema in the long run sting quite a bit.
And at heart, they probably know that having huge productions (sometimes greenlit by hedge fund bros) suck up all of the money in town isn’t conducive to a thriving community with diverse artistic output. There’s plenty of good work in the Marvel productions (there out to be for what they cost), but are we well served by story after story of ubermenschen who are the only ones who can save humanity?
That’s not an accurate description of Marvel. It was a small independent movie company that got bought out by Disney. They’re self-financing at this point and aren’t sucking up money from anyone else. Only WB right now can compete, and it’s not Marvel’s fault that they’re doing a terrible job and throwing away money left and right. Other than that Hollywood is dealing with a large variety of factors that are far more damaging. Hollywood experienced massive shrinkage after 9/11 and barely recovered. After that was a golden age of television. Now it’s streaming services, rude moviegoers, an underpaid working class and the pandemic. They’re over-reliant on sequels and remakes but that was true long before Iron Man premiered.
As for RDJ, I agree with everyone here. I hadn’t heard his comment but he’s long bothered me and I wasn’t sad to see his character exit the MCU. He’s a good actor but increasingly came off lazy and smug. Aside from RDJ and Pratt, most Marvel actors have given reasonable responses to any criticism and haven’t been overly defensive.
RDJ is long overdue for getting called out. His defense of really problematic people, his previous leanings towards republicanism, and his generally entitled attitude just sets me off.
I honestly don’t get why people love him so much, I think they just see Tony Stark when they look at him? And even then … no. He’s never been exactly secretive about the fact that he is a conservative. At the same time, he’s also never explained his political views which makes it worse because he wants everyone’s money so he can’t be too specific re his conservative leanings. “I have a really interesting political point of view … ” No, you don’t. You were a nepotism baby who fell into drugs and went to prison. That doesn’t make you interesting.
I think he’s particularly sensitive to the Marvel bashing because that’s 90% of what he’s been doing professionally for well over a decade.
ETA: I also wonder if he speaks more than one language. Bet not.
I wouldn’t even say leaning. I mean isn’t he a registered republican?
Didn’t RDJ drop out of school? I’m not shading self-made people, but I’ll side-eye the hell out of someone who had every opportunity in the world for education, squandered it, and then has the AUDACITY to think he has any right to talk about how “bright” someone is based on their (non-white) cultural background. How many languages does he speak?What an absolute douche canoe. So many of these white celebs conflate wealth/success with intelligence, and it reeks of privilege and a total lack of self-awareness (I’m lookin at you, Olivia Wilde). I’m through.
I have never forgotten he said that and I’ve disliked him deeply ever since.
Yeah RDJ comment is racist and rude af. Translation.. he doesn’t think people who grew up speaking Spanish are smart enough to form intelligent sentences or have complex thoughts. Whatever. Loser behavior.
I’ve spoken on here about working with Alejandro and how it was kind of a mind fuck because of the way he shoots, but he was was never a shithead. Those long takes are just honestly gruelling and even though I personally didn’t like the movie in the end, I have massive respect for him and Chivo. They have a distinct vision and it’s definitely fueled by their cultural heritage.
Wow, what an asshole. I missed this when it happened.
RDJ also did blackface https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/01/22/downey-blackface-tropic-thunder/
They both come across as over-privileged men saying dumb things. RDJ didn’t need to respond at all, and Inarritu calling Marvel movies “cultural genocide” is totally bananas. Like, it is OK if multiple genres of movies exist because people like different things. Stop insulting people because they like superheroes.
Over-privileged? Racism? Just catching up been busy. Stupid comment. Marvel movies I do enjoy, but I see the capitalistic and right-wing side and I’m glad they’re branching out with stories and characters. Marvel movie budgets could finance fifty great films. Inarritu tries to say something or make any epic in films with varying levels of success. I believe he is a good and sometimes great director. RDJ is the racist over privileged jerk. He might as well said he said a big word. Which it wasn’t.
Thank you for the reminder Kaiser. This is abhorrent.
I work with northern white Europeans who are ESL…. I say it to them all the time but only if their English is good.
RDJ was really dumb in this statement. Unfortunately, he isn’t alone – I’m an American, and I speak other languages, and get the same elsewhere in the world, the developing world. People here have said the same about me as RDJ said, and it’s always stupid – but I have to say, people outside of the U.S. are just as guilty of what I don’t think is racism, more like not understanding that people can be multilingual, anywhere.
But really, RDJ, don’t be part of the problem. Or learn not to be now, after you said that very stupid thing.