Unlike his other bombastic roles, the gig of Lewis Strauss required Robert Downey Jr to tackle uncharted territories.

SUMMARY

Playing Lewis Strauss was unlike anything Robert Downey Jr had tackled before.
The role required him to bring a more subtle approach to the table.

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In 2007, Robert Downey Jr earned his second Oscar nod, thanks for playing a dude, disguised as another dude in Tropic Thunder. But since then, the actor’s career, for better or worse, was mostly dictated by his stint in the MCU, which pushed him to superstardom status, until Oppenheimer.

Despite his decades-long journey in showbiz, nailing the role of Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer wasn’t easy for the Iron Man. Not only was it a far departure from his charismatic billionaire playboy, which sort of resembles his real-life persona, but it also challenged the entirety of his career trajectory.

The Role of Lewis Strauss Was New Territories for Robert Downey Jr

Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss | Oppenheimer (via Universal Pictures)

While touching on the character of Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, which earned RDJ his first Oscar win, the actor shared it was unlike anything he has done in the past. Unlike Tony Stark or the other bombastic characters that he has portrayed in the past two decades, the role of Lewis Strauss required him to bring a more subtle approach to it.

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