Robert Downey Jr. gave brutally honest answer when asked what he would be doing if not acting

While Robert Downey Jr. is now an Oscar-winning actor, his life could have been very different had he not gone into show business.

Downey Jr. won his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on Sunday (March 10) for his role of Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer.

Elsewhere, Cillian Murphy took home Best Actor for the movie, while Christopher Nolan also won his first Oscar for Best Director.

But long before Downey Jr.'s Oscar win, things didn't look like they were going very well for the Iron Man star.

In the mid 90s to early 2000s, Downey Jr. was was arrested several times over charges relating to his drug use and addiction.

He's been through several drug treatment programs over his lifetime, and has now been drug-free for over two decades.

With this troubled past in mind, Downey Jr. admitted that things could have been quite different for him if he hadn't taken up acting.

When asked by The Hollywood Reporter in a roundtable with fellow actors - including his MCU co-star Mark Ruffalo, Andrew Scott and Colman Domingo - Downey Jr. said: "If I wasn’t an actor, I would be doing hard time."

The whole table erupted into laughter at Downey Jr.'s remarks, with Domingo going on to ask: "I want to know what crimes you would have committed though."

"A trumped up felony - possession again," the 58-year-old chuckled.

Downey Jr. has previously been incarcerated and served a year behind bars in 1999.

He'd been arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded .357-caliber Magnum. He was sentenced to three years in jail, but only served 15 months.

Speaking on Dax Shepherd's Armchair Expert podcast last year, Downey Jr. labelled being imprisoned as 'the worst thing that happened to me'.

Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr. on what he would be doing if he was not an actor, during #THRRoundtable for actors pic.twitter.com/iCwVQwB5U9

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 11, 2024

He also likened it to 'being sent to a distant planet where there is no way home until the planets align'.

"You could just feel the evil in the air, and that was no trouble at all because it was kind of like just being in a really bad neighborhood," Downey Jr. went on.

"There was no opportunity there. There was only threats."

As well as crediting acting for saving him from a very bleak future, the actor has praised his wife for her undying support. He wed Susan Downey in 2005.

Downey Jr. said in his recent Oscar acceptance speech: "I'd like to thank my veterinarian - I meant wife - Susan Downey over there. She found me, a snarling rescue pet, and loved me back to life. That's why I am here. Thank you."

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