Here are some lovely and hilarious photos of Robert Downey Jr. finally getting his hand prints and footprints in front of the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I’ve been there! Yes, everyone who has ever visited LA has been there. It’s actually pretty cool – you really get to see how big or small various celebrities’ feet and hands were. I was amazed by several of the actresses, and just how tiny their little feet were. Anyway, RDJ got his junk done, all in preparation for the epic Sherlock Holmes promotional tour. He was hamming it up like crazy, too, if these photos are any indication. His wife Susan was there, and he also invited Susan’s mom, who was probably impressed. During his speech, RDJ tried to joke around, saying that he’s had a career “that’s had more dips than a French sandwich shop.” Of course, he also admitted he was “very emotional” about the honor.

RDJ also sat down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter recently, and he’s his usual charming/manic/funny/crazy/sweet self. He likes Gerard Butler! Yeah! And wait for the bit about “Hotson” – it’s really funny. The full interview is here, but it’s very inside-the-industry, of course. There’s nothing wrong with that, but since I don’t really care with the assistant director of photography ever is, for any film, I’ll just do some highlights:

The Hollywood Reporter: How did “Holmes” first end up on your radar?
Robert Downey Jr.: About 15 minutes before “Sherlock Holmes” came into my periphery I was half-jokingly asking (producer) Joel Silver — whom I credit with basically re-inviting me to the world of big studio movies with “Gothika” — “Dude, where’s our franchise?” This was in the immediate aftermath of “Iron Man.” And pretty soon after that he said, “Remember that franchise you were talking about? I think this could be a good one.” Next thing you know I was talking to (“Holmes” director) Guy Ritchie.

THR: Where were things in the development process when you came on board?
Downey Jr.: I’d just heard that the concept by Lionel Wigram had gone back to Holmes’ roots but was presented in a way that made sense in a sort of post-“300” atmosphere. Then Guy Ritchie got interested. I was hearing about Guy through my wife Susan (a “Holmes” producer) and Joel because they had financed “RocknRolla,” which I really liked. I guess I had a little too much time on my hands because I asked Susan to get the North American trailers for me (for “RocknRolla”). I love Gerry Butler and the turn that he did, which showed a very funny, different side than he’d shown in “300” — and for some reason I was really interested in making sure that was reflected in the trailer. I found myself tweaking in an area where I had no actual business tweaking. Guy didn’t know any of this at the time, but I started talking to him about it and then we both realized that they’d put us on the phone because we were supposed to discuss the possibility of doing “Sherlock Holmes.” Shortly thereafter, he told me that we shouldn’t even be having that conversation because I was too old.

THR: And who changed his mind about that?
Downey Jr.: Somebody called him and said, “You said WHAT?” and gently explained that I was in a different career situation than I was in years past and that I might be the perfect choice. Next thing I knew, we were talking about doing the movie and who would be my best co-star for what’s essentially a Victorian buddy movie.

THR: Speaking of your co-star, since when is Watson such an attractive guy?
Downey Jr.: Have you heard Guy’s nickname for (Jude Law)? As soon as Jude was cast, on the Internet they called him “the hot Watson” and then on set for the entirety of the shoot, over intercoms and to anyone who was in earshot, (Ritchie) called him “Hotson.” Interestingly, Arthur Conan Doyle’s description of Watson has nothing to do with the way he was seen in films previous to Jude’s being cast. He’s a man of action, retired military, a bit of a ladies man and at times verging on a potentially degenerate gambler. I also figured that the more gals were interested in looking at Watson, the less I had to worry about being anything besides completely off the wall and eccentric.

THR: Your Holmes is a much more physical version than we’re used to. Tell us about the fight scenes.
Downey Jr.: We developed a lot of (the choreography) early on and some of it was very dialed in but often as not we’d get there and say, “This doesn’t feel quite right,” and we’d pull out as many toys as we had that were clad in rubber and start swinging. I only really got rocked once and I needed less than 10 stitches. We actually still finished the day and then I went to the hospital.

THR: Where did you get busted open?
Downey Jr.: Just on the inside of my lip. It was no big deal. But I was very happy when Guy said it was more serious than he thought. That really made my day because he would routinely show up on set with black eyes from his jiu jitsu training.

THR: Has your approach changed at all in the wake of your recent success?
Downey Jr.: The difference is personal in that I have a bit more influence now — that my ideas maybe carry more weight than they might have before. But regarding the type of project, my approach is unchanged. Go for broke and exempt all cliches if possible. And set up and pay off story points in as clever and honest a way as possible.

THR: Are you having more fun now than you would have if all this had come 20 years ago?
Downey Jr.: Absolutely more fun now, perhaps because I’ve lived more mistakes than I could possibly repeat. I’m kind of a professional troubleshooter in a sense. Having done so many films the less than optimal way, I tend to smell the end result of faulty process pretty acutely … and hopefully help it be avoided by my co-workers.

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

Okay, the “Hotson” gave me the giggles. I’m seriously still laughing. From now on, when I look at Jude Law, all I’m going to think is “Hotson”. I also love that RDJ loves 300 and RockNRolla! Hurray for Gerard Butler! I’m sure that RDJ’s praise means a lot to Gerard… hopefully. No, I bet it does. Gerard loves his fellow actors. Chuckle. Hotson. That still gets me!

Robert Downey Jr. at Grauman’s in Los Angeles on December 7, 2009. Credit: WENN and Fame.