Name: Robert Downey Jr. Comes Clean About His Addictions | Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-01-08T23:06:29.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Robert Downey Jr. Comes Clean About His Addictions | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-01-08. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Robert Downey Jr. Comes Clean About His Addictions | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-01-08. Transcript available.

here's a fascinating guy and and truly a great great talent a wonderful actor
robert downey jr
and and here here is a guy who has and i think he'll be the first to tell you
has struggled a
great deal with his own particular set of demons and and now i understand he's
he's he's better
he's he's clean he's sober and it's as you know it's a lifelong struggle so so
we'll talk to him
about that and many many other things and i respect the fact that he's uh brave
enough to come on the
show because uh actually nice enough because i made jokes about him all those
years when he was
having his difficulties and and he's smart enough to know that well we were
just kidding around and
he's so he's coming on the show tonight so that's i think that's a nice thing
for him to do our first
guest is an academy award nominated actor starring in a new motion picture
entitled gothika it opened
today here's robert downey jr welcome back well thanks i just i just want to
say a couple of
things you haven't been here in eight years and and lord knows we can only
guess at the personal
struggle that you seem to have prevailed over now but i in all honesty i never
thought i'd see you again
i just thought here's a lost human being uh obviously not i was incorrect my
apologies for that that's
all right and congratulations for the struggle that has consumed the last eight
years that you
obviously as i said have gotten control of now nice going appreciate that
now uh does that uh does that mean that that the jokes and the monologue are
over for now well
we'll see how you behave oh just checking provided i keep my side of the street
clean you don't
mind give me a freaking break here that's right great but do you mind if i ask
you a couple of
questions about the the nature of an addiction like yours and yours really must
have had you by the
throat apparently right uh-huh is is is is that is it circumstantial is it
emotional is it psychological
is it is it uh environmental what is the root of an addiction that's so
powerful like that that
that people are willing really to walk right to the edge of hell and look in uh
remembering you're
talking about sex earlier yeah kind of feels good yeah well imagine if sex
turned really ugly and you
couldn't stop but every time you know that kind of thing does sex turn really
ugly after a point
how's it going uh what i would say is uh wait a minute does it i don't know i
guess no no i was
actually making comparison well i imagine if i mean the truth is uh it's a
combination of things i don't
know i'm not i'm not an expert i just you know have i'm just really glad that
that nowadays it
doesn't occupy my my thoughts and right but i you know i i really don't know
anyone who hasn't had
some sort of uh encounter with it whether it was a family member or whatever
and i i'm just glad i'm
sitting here and uh i wasn't part of the monologue and and and and and what
what do you know about
yourself now that you you know didn't know 10 years ago what what do you
understand well i don't
want to get too right-wing about the whole thing but i think ultimately it's uh
it's somewhat of a moral
dilemma even though a lot of programs and approaches say no don't say that it's
just i'm certain there's
a spiritual aspect too but i think largely it's kind of like you have a
reasonable amount of
control about what you do what you put in your mouth with your hands you know
type stuff i think
ultimately you just have to and i think getting a little older helps too yeah
when you see somebody
like uh rush limbaugh and he had a problem with prescription painkillers and he
goes away for
five weeks to some kind of rehab and he's apparently okay now does that ring
true with you or not
i would say well initially i mean a couple years ago i just said wow he's got a
lot of pills i wonder if
i can get him on the horn um
but i mean no i mean my experience is it's there's a lot of like there's almost
like jokes about it like
people go to rehab and something the 30-day wonder and now they're a recovery ranger
and they've gone
through the spin dry and now they've got i'm fine i got it all together you
know nobody is fine doesn't
work that way i don't think so yeah the ongoing process a step at a time sure
now were there times
when you just thought like i can't control this it's over i might as well end
everything were you that
desperate well dave uh it's funny you should ask i don't uh i mean you know i'm
surprised to admit that
when i was you know locked down in a california correctional facility i said
wow this is really not
panning out for me yeah maybe i should uh you know kind of took a look around
wow i have like a shiv
and i'm eating top ramen soup and it might jump off on b yard in two hours huh
maybe i huh let me
think this through yeah might have taken a wrong turn several hundred thousand
wrong yeah uh and you
have uh you have a son yes so so now does your life looking at your life now
and superimposing that
possibility on your son just scare the hell out of you oh i'll lock him down in
a second yeah yeah and
and and what what will you do to help him avoid that um some people say there's
a genetic component or
predisposition i think ultimately again it's about i'm i'm glad that there's
there's there's one positive
side effect which is the whole thing doesn't seem glamorous to him and um and i'm
real serious about
it too i mean again nowadays it's like i i don't know that that and i i'm a
little bit hesitant to
say this but i think every repercussion you have that is negative when you're
doing something that's
self-destructive whether it seems supportive or people say oh oh he's just
trying to work the system
and get another rehab shot i mean i just think like you know did i say i'd lock
him down yes yeah i would
and how how long have you been away from this style of life uh it's been it's
been a couple
years now good for you thank you all right and you recently engaged
congratulations on that well thank
you when are you getting married uh when on the day that we do it there you go
and uh can you tell us a little bit about the woman sure uh her name's susan we
met on gothika
which is this uh film that's open today right and uh she was a producer and but
it wasn't all that
inappropriate we kind of waited until after we were done shooting kind of yeah
yes and and and what
what what about uh her drew you to her and what about you drew her to you and i
can't speak for her
though i'd like to and occasionally i attempt to and she shuts me down all
right um but she's just
great she's really smart and uh she's got a a good job you know and uh are you
nervous about this this
will be your i guess your second merit on a scale of one to ten of the things i'm
nervous about no
she should be nervous i'm not nervous at all well good good but she shouldn't
really yeah you know
and tell me we mentioned your son who is 10 years old yeah and uh loves soccer
big soccer yeah india's
their team is number one in the league and i think he's the number one he's had
the most scores in the
league and um that's where i could get in a little bit of trouble actually tell
you the truth
being a soccer dad and yeah i don't like it when the opposing team starts
talking smack about you
know hey number seven don't let them score on you i'm like you know that's you're
talking about
indio you you want to bring this to another level they're like no we're
watching a soccer game
with 10 year olds i'm like uh-huh i see who you are now you know whatever that'll
like jailhouse
jailhouse bob stuff comes out
do you uh what are your plans you have for the holiday everybody will get
together i assume somewhere
well actually yeah uh susan and i and india we're gonna go uh hang out with woody
harrelson in hawaii
ah don't be concerned i need to look right away it's just a yeah and i know woody
harrelson a little
bit from being on the show he seems like a lovely fellow yeah but there is this
other notion regarding
woody that i'm not sure whether it's true or not and if it is true i'm not sure
is that good company
he's great company i don't know what you think i'm gonna wind up like you know
like hopped out and
eating mangoes hiding in a tree or something well yeah i'm not i have a
reasonable amount of control
what i put in my mouth and now how about this like in uh toronto he had like
thousands and thousands of
people go for this big like yoga day and he said and ride your bike to conserve
fossil fuels well of
course now what we have is you know like 20 000 people stoned on a bike going
where's the park bro you
know but his intention was to get people doing yoga that's right sure it just
didn't work out that way
did it not quite no uh you mentioned that gothic opens uh today and we had hallie
berry on the show
a couple of geez i don't know when it was three weeks ago or so yeah a lovely
woman yes and uh we
have a clip here you want to tell folks what we're going to see oh yes uh she's
come out of a coma
we're doctors in a uh institution for criminally insane women you know she
mentioned that during the
filming of this you actually broke her arm
yeah wow you're lucky to still be in the business for heaven's sakes
you know what i was never been i was terrified and and the whole thing and you
know what people
you said this on the show you said well uh why didn't he apologize to you when
someone breaks their
arm they're screaming and what do you say wait stop the press don't get the medevac
here i'm sorry i'm so terribly sorry it was an accident but i've
been lifting too many weights and i didn't really recalibrate my strength when
i've been in that
you get him some help uh-huh but you just snapped her arm no all right it's all
my fault is that
better no no it's just oh it's still not better just an odd thing to have on
your on your resume
uh all right so let's take a look at the clip and tell us again what it is uh
she's uh i'm about to
let her know that she's uh killed her husband okay here we go it's gothica
opened earlier today yes
is he is he a bad guy or is he a good guy right uh it's gothic ad open today
good to see you thank
you congratulations and please come back sooner than eight years from now all
right all right
robert downey jr everybody we'll be right back with josh stone
you