Overview
- On the Conversations for Our Daughters podcast, Robert Downey Jr. called the notion that influencers are the next generation of stars “absolute horseshit.”
- Downey said people can now “create celebrity” by “rolling a phone on themselves,” which he argued raises the challenge of developing a real identity and craft.
- He pointed to his teenage son getting swept up in gaming streams and donations, likening some influencer tactics to “Evangelical hucksters of the information age.”
- Despite the critique, he said many influencers he has met during film promotion are grounded and accomplished, and he tries to avoid being “consumed” by social platforms even with 58.1 million Instagram followers.
- He framed the comments within shifting movie promotion, recalling Jon Favreau tweeting onstage at Comic-Con, as he prepares to return as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18.