Robert Downey Jr. Calls Out Influencer Hype: “It’s Absolute Horsesh*t” to Call Them the Future of Stardom

There’s always a new wave in entertainment, but Robert Downey Jr. isn’t buying one of the biggest narratives floating around right now.

During a recent podcast appearance, the actor shared his unfiltered thoughts on social media influencers being labeled as the “stars of the future,” and he didn’t hold back.

While he understands the shift in how fame works today, he’s clearly skeptical about what it all means for the craft of actually creating something meaningful.

Downey, best known for launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark in Iron Man, spoke on the Conversations for our Daughters podcast and addressed how easily celebrity can be manufactured today.

“Nowadays people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves,” he said. But instead of dismissing it outright, he framed it as a new kind of challenge. “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.”

He’s not necessarily anti-influencer. What he’s pushing back on is the idea that this is the only path forward for the next generation. He pointed out that there’s still value in building skills, learning, and actually making something tangible.

“Hopefully the [larger] 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.”

Even with 58.1 million Instagram followers himself, Downey keeps a certain distance from the machine. That fanbase largely came from his time in the MCU, and fans are about to see him step back into that world in a very different way, playing Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, which hits theaters December 18.

Still, he’s not convinced the influencer boom is redefining what it means to be a star.

“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.’”

His perspective gets even more personal when talking about how the influencer culture can pull people in, especially younger audiences.

“[My 14-year-old son] 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,” the actor continued.

“So there’s something about the influencers today that are 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.

“I also know when I am promoting a film now I’ve gotten to know a few of these influencers, and I find many of them grounded, accomplished, cool people.”

That balance is what makes his take interesting. He isn’t dismissing people outright, he’s just questioning the bigger narrative around them.

And when it comes to his own online presence, Downey admits he keeps things at arm’s length. “I know, like people say, ‘Robert, they just love it when you’re just kind of like seeming off the cuff, and they’re getting a glimpse into your life.’ And I go, ‘But yeah, but I’d be manufacturing that aspect for them, so it’s B.S.”

He even reflected on how early signs of this shift showed up back in the early MCU days, recalling a moment with Jon Favreau during the first Iron Man rollout.

“But I remember Jon Favreau, when we brought the teaser for Iron Man to Comic Con, he was tweeting on stage and I saw the audience… This is the new hue where the audience is going to feel like they’re on the steering committee of this thing. Ok, so that’s the new landscape.”

Downey isn’t denying the landscape has changed. He’s just not convinced that virality equals legacy, and coming from someone who helped redefine blockbuster cinema, that’s a perspective worth thinking about.