AVENGERS: ENDGAME Star Robert Downey Jr. Asked Disney Not To Push Him For "Best Actor" Oscar

AVENGERS: ENDGAME Star Robert Downey Jr. Asked Disney Not To Push Him For "Best Actor" Oscar

When Disney launched the "For Your Consideration" campaign for Avengers: Endgame, fans were shocked by Robert Downey Jr.'s absence. Now, the actor himself has weighed in on the reason for this omission.

By JoshWilding - Oct 08, 2019 02:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Endgame star Robert Downey Jr. recently appeared on The Howard Stern Show, and among the topics that were discussed was the fact that the actor has never been nominated for his role as Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In the process, Downey revealed that he didn't actually want to be included in the "For Your Consideration" Oscar campaign for the film.

"I'm so glad you brought this up because there was some talk about, and I said let's not, and because I'm much more like you than you might really want to believe," Downey explained.

"I listen to the show and I agree with most all of your opinions, varied though they may be. Occasionally, you'll go on some tributary trail of thought I'll go like 'oh that's not how I see it, but I love that you see it that way,'" he added in regards to the host pointing out all the reasons the Iron Man actor is worthy of being considered for an Academy Award. 

You can hear Downey's comments - and his thoughts on Martin Scorsese's recent dismissal of superhero movies - in the player below. Do you guys think he's made the right decision? 


Hit the "View List" button to check out which MCU characters
have the most screentime in Marvel's first 22 movies!

 

15. Nick Fury

Fury-2


Screentime: 1 Hour, 16 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame

Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury has been there since day one and while he mostly made cameos to begin with, that quickly changed with The Avengers and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director obviously benefited with a leading role in Captain Marvel despite that team-up franchise later putting him on the back burner.
 

14. Gamora

Gamora-1


Screentime: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
Zoe Saldana has played two versions of Gamora in the MCU and while her future remains uncertain, it's good to see how much time Marvel Studios has devoted to telling her story over the years.

That was cut tragically short with Avengers: Infinity War but I'm sure James Gunn will have good fun returning to the character's past when he gets his hand on that earlier version of her in Vol. 3
 

13. Loki

Loki-3


Screentime: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame

The God of Mischief has become a staple of this shared world in recent years and has plagued both Earth's Mightiest Heroes and his brother, Thor. His story on the big screen seemingly came to an end thanks to Thanos but we can look forward to it continuing on the small one when Disney+ launches. 
 

12. Captain Marvel

Captain-Marvel-2


Screentime: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame

It's pretty surprising to see Brie Larson's Carol Danvers make the cut here, especially when she did very little in Avengers: Endgame. However, Marvel Studios wisely kept the focus on the HERo in her solo movie and that might explain why she's received so much screentime over the course of two movies! 
 

11. Rocket

Rocket2


Screentime: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame

Beating Captain Marvel by just a few seconds, Rocket has become a fan-favourite character in the MCU and has now had sizeable roles across both the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers franchises. While he's now returned to the latter, it would be an awful lot of fun seeing him assemble alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes again, especially after striking up such a friendship with the team.
 

10. War Machine

Rhodey


Screentime: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame

War Machine has never appeared in his own movie but after playing a key role in the Iron Man movies (yes, we're counting the Terrence Howard version, as well), he made the leap to the world of The Avengers and was instrumental in both Civil War and the battle against Thanos when he invaded Earth. 
 

9. Doctor Strange

Dr-Strange


Screentime: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame

The Sorcerer Supreme is clearly going to be a key part of the MCU as we move into Phase 4 and he's already had a pretty significant impact since arriving at the end of 2016. As well as starring in a solo movie, Benedict Cumberbatch popped up in Thor: Ragnarok before taking on a key role in defeating Thanos.
 

8. Spider-Man

Spider-Man-4


Screentime: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame

We never thought we'd see the wall-crawler in the MCU but Marvel Studios made it happen and have made good use of the near two hours worth of screentime he's had in this shared world.

While he's spent most of his time working alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes (he was even made an official Avenger in Infinity War), we can expect this number to go up after Far From Home.
 

7. Star-Lord

Quill


Screentime: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame

Peter Quill is arguably the lead of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, so it's no wonder he places so highly here. His meeting with Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange helps matters, of course, but the fact he was dusted means he only played a very minimal role in this year's Avengers: Endgame
 

6. Black Widow

Widow4


Screentime: 2 Hours, 12 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame

There aren't a huge number of female characters on this list but at least Black Widow nearly cracks the top five! After a rather underwhelming introduction in Iron Man 2, Natasha went on to become an integral part of both The Avengers and Captain America franchises and while the character died in Endgame, we can expect to see her get at least one more adventure in that origin story.
 

5. Ant-Man

Scott-Lang


Screentime: 2 Hours, 27 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Ant-Man And The Wasp, Avengers: Endgame

For a hero many wrote off as a D-Lister when it was first revealed he would be getting his own movie, Ant-Man has done pretty well for himself! He has two solo movies and played very important roles in both Captain America: Civil War and, more vitally, Avengers: Endgame. Assuming the team assembles again somewhere down the line, we can surely Scott Lang to be part of proceedings.
 

4. The Hulk

Hulk4


Screentime: 2 Hours, 41 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame

The Jade Giant has only had one solo movie and, well, he was played by a different actor! Marvel Studios has made good use of him in the world of The Avengers, though, and he made a surprisingly awesome co-star for Thor in his last adventure. What comes next for the Jade Giant isn't clear right now. 
 

3. Thor

Thor43


Screentime: 3 Hours, 49 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame

The God of Thunder may have been benched for Captain America: Civil War but the Russo Brothers gave him a meaty part in Avengers: Infinity War. It's pretty incredible to look back at the journey he's taken and of all the characters listed here, I think it's fair to say he's undergone the biggest changes.
 

2. Captain America

Steve-Cap


Screentime: 4 Hours, 36 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame

Chris Evans was so damn good as Captain America, it's genuinely heartbreaking that his time as the character is now at an end. Still, we can't complain too much because as well as getting his own trilogy, we've seen him in all of The Avengers movies and he's even made pretty hilarious cameos elsewhere!
 

1. Iron Man

Iorn-Man


Screentime: 6 Hours, 41 Minutes

Movies Appeared In: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame

Who else did you expect to see here? 

Ever since Iron Man exceeded expectations, Marvel Studios made Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark a priortiy and he's been at the forefront of the marketing for every Avengers movie. The character has also popped up in other franchises and the actor was famously paid a huge amount of money for a very small amount of screentime in Spider-Man: Homecoming to please Sony Pictures.

Many thanks to Reddit's ecomcodes for the figures used here.

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TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 10/8/2019, 2:58 AM
This isn’t about what you want Robert this is about what I want!

MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 10/8/2019, 10:59 AM
@TheUnworthyThor -
Origame
Origame - 10/8/2019, 3:08 AM
I still don't see this as an oscar worthy performance. Sure, it was great, but it was also pretty atypical for him as tony stark. And as for everyone saying "people were hyperventilating after he died" well clearly its because this character that many people grew up with just died. He could've completely phoned in his performance and his death would've still given that response.
Alex35
Alex35 - 10/8/2019, 3:10 AM
Smart man. That was great performance but not an Oscar worthy one. Not even close.
tmp3
tmp3 - 10/8/2019, 3:13 AM
Really cool interview with him
jbak368
jbak368 - 10/8/2019, 3:51 AM
Robert Downey Jr. should absolutely be nominated for an Oscar for Avengers: Endgame. Tony Stark goes from arrogant prince to culture hero to universal savior. Along the way he faces twisted brother-mirrors (Vanko/Hammer/Killian) and ogre fathers (Stane/Fury/Thanos); he meets, reckons with, is betrayed/abandoned by, and reconciles with his symbolic older brother/father’s favored son (Cap); he realizes that the source of his power is within himself and not within his weapon (Iron Man Three); he becomes a paranoid king who gives birth to a monster (Ultron); he becomes a benevolent, boon-bestowing father figure (Spider-Man: Homecoming); he confronts a tyrant god and completes an impossible task, stealing the tyrant god’s power and sacrificing himself, literally for the entire universe, in a moment of heroic apotheosis so powerful it left audiences in almost every culture on planet earth weeping in their cinemas and grossed more money than any movie in history. He has been Oedipus/Hamlet; he has been Minos, Theseus, and Daedalus; he has been Odysseus and Athena; he has been Prometheus/Christ. He constantly battles within himself to reconcile the legacy of his forbears with his moral experience of the world. He learns over and over again the same lesson - that the nature of the heroic act is sacrificial, and that the thing the hero must sacrifice is ultimately his ego. All of this unfolded across eleven years and ten films, six of which grossed over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. I know of no other story in cinema with such mythic sweep and cultural impact. And, somehow, Downey was BETTER EVERY TIME. He never seemed to be there just for the paycheck, he never seemed to resent the role. He went deeper into the role every time he played it.

Give the man an Oscar (not that he shouldn’t be satisfied with global acclaim and hundreds of millions of dollars)
jbak368
jbak368 - 10/8/2019, 3:56 AM
@CaptainHands - I almost never sign in to comment, so it won't really bother me. Other people can have their opinions. This is mine.
dracula
dracula - 10/8/2019, 3:52 AM
Well comic books will be represented for sure whether he is nominated or not
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