Robert Downey Jr. Dismisses Influencers as Future Stars

Robert Downey Jr., the Oscar-winning actor known for his Iron Man role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, dismissed the notion that social media influencers represent the stars of the future during a recent appearance on the Conversations for our Daughters podcast.

The actor contrasted modern fame with his experiences in the late 1970s and early 1980s. "Dangerous though it was, there was this sense that the competition wasn't so stiff that you shouldn't even bother trying," Downey Jr. said. He noted that today, "people can create a celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves." He described this shift not as inherently negative but as raising "the challenge for individuation."

Downey Jr. expressed hope that young people would pursue more substantive paths. "Hopefully the grosser part of the youth... is gonna say, 'Yeah, but that's not my thing. I want to go do something, I'm going to make something, I want to build something, I want to educate myself,'" he said, emphasizing outputs beyond "a self-aggrandizing kind of influencer-type thing."

He rejected predictions of influencers dominating entertainment outright. "When I hear people talk about, 'Oh, the...