'Absolute horses--t': Robert Downey Jr slams claims that influencers are the ‘stars of the future’

Oscar-winning actor Robert Downey Jr. has weighed in on the ongoing debate over the rise of influencer culture, dismissing suggestions that online personalities are set to become the dominant stars of the future and arguing instead for the enduring value of craft, creativity and genuine achievement.

Robert Downey Jr weighs in on the influencer culture

Speaking on the Conversations for our Daughters podcast, Downey reflected on how fame and celebrity have changed since he entered the entertainment industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His comments come amid wider discussion in Hollywood and the media industry over the increasing power of social media creators, many of whom now command audiences that rival — and in some cases exceed — those of traditional film and television stars.

Downey, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Oppenheimer and remains one of Hollywood’s most recognisable figures following his long-running portrayal of Iron Man, said the entertainment landscape had shifted dramatically in recent decades.

“It was also a time when in the late ’70s, early ’80s, dangerous though it was, there was this sense that the competition wasn’t so stiff that you shouldn’t even bother trying. Whereas nowadays, people can create a celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves. I don’t look at that as a negative thing. I just look at it as more like the challenge for individuation is being upped.”

The actor stressed that his criticism was not aimed at social media creators as a whole, but at what he described as a culture of self-promotion detached from meaningful creative output.

“Hopefully the grosser part of the youth of — let’s just call it America for locality’s sake — 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 and I want to have more inputs,’ so whatever my output is, it isn’t just a self-aggrandizing kind of influencer-type thing.”

Downey reserved his strongest criticism for the increasingly common suggestion that influencer culture represents the future of mainstream stardom.

“When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,’ I go, ‘I don’t know what world you’re living in, but I think that that is absolute horseshit,'” he added.

Downey is currently preparing for his return to the Marvel franchise with Avengers: Doomsday, a project expected to further spotlight the intersection between traditional blockbuster cinema and digital-first publicity strategies.