Robert Downey Jr. Talks About Playing Charlie Chaplin in CHAPLIN and How He Wanted it To Be Historically Accurate

During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Roboert Downey Jr. opened up about his career and the fantastic roles that he’s played over the course of his life. At one point, he talks about his time working on the 1992 biopic film Chaplin, when he played the legendary Charlie Chaplin.

I remember seeing that movie in theaters for the first time with my friends. This was a film that we were all very excited about seeing because we were all fans of Charlie Chaplin. I remember watching the movie in the theater as a young teen just completely captivated. It was the movie that sparked my interest in Hollywood history and I was always at the library reading everything I possibly could on the early years of Hollywood.

So, it’s cool to see Downey Jr. talk about a movie that really inspired me in a lot of ways. In the interview, Downey Jr. delved into how actor and acrobat Johnny Hutch helped him learn about Charlie Chaplin and his choreography, saying:

“Chaplin was an absolute gift and a real bear of a challenge for someone who’s 25 when they started prepping to do it, but there were all these people that were still around — just barely still around. Johnny Hutch, who came from The Benny Hill Show and he knew the guy who really had done these choreographed things at the Karno Theater with Chaplin, so he actually had access to some of the books of really what the choreography was for some of this stuff. And he drilled me incessantly for months and months and months.”

Downey Jr. then explained that he became an expert on Chaplin while filming, and he wanted the movie he was making to be as accurate as possible. The director of the film however, Richard Attenborough, had to remind the actor that they were making a movie, not a documentary. He said:

“I employed every single way I could try to show up for that role. When you’re 25 and you’re given the keys to the kingdom, you’re going to probably to come out of center. Maybe out of fear, maybe out of confidence. And for me — at that point, not to boast — I was as much of a Chaplin expert as anyone involved in the project. And I was making corrections to the things that were factually and historically inaccurate, to which Attenborough said, ‘But poppet, we’re making a film, not a documentary.'”

The movie took audiences on a journey from Chaplin's humble beginnings in south London through his early days in British vaudeville, his silent movie career in America and his late masterpieces. It explored his turbulent personal life, which saw four marriages and an enforced exile from the US, all the way to the point where he returned to receive an honorary Oscar in 1972.

Chaplin also starred Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin, Kevin Dunn, Anthony Hopkins, Milla Jovovich, Moira Kelly, Kevin Kline, Diane Lane, Penelope Ann Miller, Paul Rhys, John Thaw, Marisa Tomei, Nancy Travis, David Duchovny, and James Woods.