Robert Downey Jr. may have had a major career comeback in 2008 with Iron Man, but last year became his comeback as an acting force with his performance in Oppenheimer gaining awards recognition. Downey Jr. maintains that he feels his work as Tony Stark went overlooked with the stigma of Iron Man being a superhero film. However, his portrayal of Lewis Strauss in the Christopher Nolan drama earned him a Golden Globe win, which now fuels the talk of an Academy Award nomination.
While Downey Jr. won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, his Oppenheimer co-star, Cillian Murphy, would also take home a statue for Best Actor. Murphy would beat out Bradley Cooper for the award, as he was also up for his performance as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, but if it weren’t bad enough for Cooper, he would also accidentally receive a congratulatory text from Rob Lowe. According to Variety, Lowe shared an anecdote on Jimmy Kimmel Live where he meant to send Robert Downey Jr. a compliment on his win, but he realized it was actually sent to Cooper.
Lowe humorously explained, “Downey does this amazing acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, and I’m so excited for him so I text him, ‘So glad you won. That is the most beautiful acceptance speech I’ve heard in a long time. Boy, do you deserve it.’ I hit it and I realize, ‘Oh shit. I just sent that to Bradley Cooper.’” Lowe continued, “I said, ‘No, no, I meant that for Robert Downey Jr.’ Now that’s even worse! I made the guy feel worse! It was terrible.”
Recently, Downey Jr. honored Murphy with a Desert Palm Achievement Award and gave his co-star high praise for his portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Downey Jr. spoke of Murphy, saying, “I’ve been in this game for 40-something years and I’ve never had the experience like watching Cillian carry the weight of J. Robert on his back for the whole time with his heart on his sleeve and all the required sophistication and restraint.”