Given the choice between telling a joke and telling you what he really thinks, Robert Downey
Jr. will always pick the former. The attitude has its appeal, but it's also a bit frustrating.
Downey's a natural tease. "My primary goal in life is respect for myself, from myself. My
secondary goal is to eat a lot of salad," he says deadpan, and smiles slyly.What sets him apart all the other pretty young things who've flooded the movies? "I think what distinguishes me is that I'm better than everyone else." Downey's irresistibly playful performance in this month's release Chances Are may justify his claim - it's hard to imagine any other actor capable of carrying that leaden film on his shoulders.
Downey's not comfortable talking about his home life, but for the last five years he's had a steady girlfriend, Sarah Jessica Parker, whom he lives with now and whom he's rather touchingly devoted to. (She's the best thing that's ever happened to me," he admits, embarrassed at his own soppiness.) His one vice is "spending wildly on meaningless objects - clothes, toys, whatever..." He's a big fan of the 'Seth Books'... They were written by a spirit no longer focused in a physical body, through a lady named Jane Roberts," says Downey. His favorite dinner is Chicken Supreme from Jack in the Box. The only glimpse you get of Downey's serious side is when you ask him about politics. "I wish we had a President who didn't have Noriega's home phone number," he says gravely.
Also on Downey's agenda is True Believer, in which he plays an idealistic young lawyer opposite James Woods as an embittered former radical. In life, though, Downey's more ironist than idealist, as is clear in the way he words his "motto": "Try to be thankful for the gift I've been given - the gift of genius. And try not to be a schmuck."