The renowned American actor remained for a time in the same prison where Charles Manson was imprisoned. Prison and drugs until finally, his life saw the light
In recent years, Robert Downey Jr. has managed to become one of the most famous actors in the world thanks to Iron Man, the superhero he played for about a decade and who not only added great profits to his bank accounts but also consolidated him as a fundamental part of the vast Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, getting to that point in his life cost him a lot of work, since from his childhood to his youth he went through a strong addiction to drugs that even led him to set foot in the same jail where Charles Manson was imprisoned.
The American artist has starred in countless films throughout his career, but no fictional story compares to the powerful experiences he lived through during his early life. Robert Downey Jr. was around seven years old when he tried a marijuana cigarette for the first time, something that changed his life forever because without imagining it, this approach that he had from his father's own hand was the beginning of an addiction that he has endured until the present.
It all started when his parent - a well-known American actor and director - gave him permission to stay at a party where the adults were consuming marijuana. It was in that apparently safe family environment where he received the invitation to smoke and because for those present it was not considered something "bad" he agreed, but this experience did not stop there, because as the years went by it became a link between him and Robert Downey Sr. After all, they used it together.
Although this opening significantly affected her personal and professional growth and development, during the same talk she had with the famous journalist, she did not blame her parents for her addiction, considering that their actions were the result of the cultural changes they were experiencing at that time. of their lives.
He grew up alongside his addiction to marijuana and his first steps into the entertainment industry. As expected, at a certain point he accessed other types of drugs such as amphetamines and cocaine, all illegal substances in the United States, for which he was arrested on several occasions, not only for consumption and possession but also for driving under the influence of these drugs. substances.
In the 1990s, he was arrested for trespassing. And is that the actor who had recently turned 30 years old went into the house of his neighbor and took a nap in the bed of the boy who lived there, all due to the confusion caused by drugs.
The arrests were getting more and more constant and the situations that Robert Downey Jr. got into were also more dangerous, so his friends Sean Penn and Dennis Quaid did something about it, they took him to a rehab center in the hope that reflect on how he had lived most of his life up to that point.
Unfortunately, his efforts did not bear fruit and the protagonist of Sherlock Holmes (2009) escaped from the establishment through a bathroom window. Because he left the place without his belongings, he had to hitch a ride until he got to the house of another friend who finally helped him.
He was also arrested while “throwing” imaginary rats out of his vehicle window. In this context, his stay in prison increased and he was sentenced to 113 days in jail, where he unfortunately faced several inmates. But this was not enough for him to work on his addiction, because when he completed his days behind bars he relapsed. Thus it came in 1999 when after failing to attend a narcotics test as part of his probation, he was sentenced to spend three years in jail.
Robert Downey Jr. pleaded for him not to be imprisoned again, however, the judge who heard his case determined that it was the best thing for him, in addition to his rehabilitation. The actor entered the prison in Corcoran, California, where he was serving his Charles Manson sentence. In this regard, during his talk with Oprah, he confessed that he did not know the criminal, but he did hear him.
When he got out he relapsed and went through a couple more arrests until he finally decided to do something about it and instead of consuming the drugs he carried in his pockets, he threw them away. From that moment he tried to focus on his work since he had already won a Golden Globe for his character in Ally McBeal and he could do much more while the productions kept looking for him.
She also launched as a singer with The Futurist, an album made up of 10 songs that are currently available on YouTube. Her lifestyle improved and she soon met Susan Levin, whom he married and although her marriage was short-lived, she considers it a fundamental part of her finding stability.
His interview with Oprah is one of the most remembered because he opened his heart to share how he felt during that stage of his life: "It's easy to embrace hopelessness when things don't seem to get better and it's really only a matter of time until that all the elements come together so that things are well. The most difficult situations resolve themselves if you are persistent, if you don't give up completely, things I never did, I never gave up”.
Due to everything that happened with his father, he confessed that if he ever found his firstborn consuming marijuana, he would take him to a rehabilitation center without thinking twice, because he is in no way willing for another member of his family to go through the same: “I would tell him what the judge told me: 'I am going to imprison you in a way that is very uncomfortable.'”
After these years of constant struggle with himself, Robert Downey Jr. managed to become the highest-paid actor in the world in 2013 when, according to Forbes, he would have earned 75 million dollars after starring in two of his most memorable films: Iron Man 3 and The Avengers. But the sum increased years later after they collaborated in Avengers Endgame, which raised more than 2.5 million dollars at the box office, for that reason the protagonists topped the Forbes Celebrity 100 list as the highest-earning actors in the world.
