During a recent appearance on Conversations for our Daughters, Robert Downey Jr. slams modern celebrity culture, rejecting the idea that influencers are the future of stardom.
While talking about the rise of technology, Downey Jr. said the rise of self-made online fame isn’t necessarily a negative, but it does change what it takes to stand apart. According to the iconic actor, the idea of modern celebrity culture is “absolute horsesh**.”
“Nowadays, people can create a celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves,” the Iron Man star said. “And I don’t look at that as a negative thing. I just look at it as more like the challenge of individuation is being upped.”
Downey Jr. continued, insisting that young artists shouldn’t just rely on social media. “Hopefully, the grosser part of the youth of – let’s just call it America for locality’s sake – you know, 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-aggrandising kind of influencer-type thing.”
“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 horsesh***.”
The Sherlock Holmes actor went on, highlighting a part of influencer culture that can feel like hype-driven self-promotion dressed up as something more meaningful. He gave an example that his 14-year-old son was recently sucked into the new-age attention economy.
“He kinda got caught up in this whole influencer thing, and next thing you know, it’s like, ‘Hey, if you like the way I’m playing this video game, do you wanna send me a donation?’ And really, it becomes a religion.”
“So there’s something about the influencers today that is almost like the evangelical hucksters of the information age. At the same token, it’s different because we’re playing in this new territory, and so it’s a little bit of a frontier, and I don’t really have a judgment on it.”
Before ending, Downey Jr. did say that he appreciates when people put in a lot of effort into creating something, whether it’s writing something or creating social media videos.