{"id":413,"date":"2026-05-01T09:12:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/robert-downey-jr-slams-influencer-culture-as-absolute-horses\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T09:12:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:12:38","slug":"robert-downey-jr-slams-influencer-culture-as-absolute-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/robert-downey-jr-slams-influencer-culture-as-absolute-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Downey Jr. slams influencer culture as &#8216;absolute horses&#8212;&#8216;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/05\/126764198.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft wp-block-nypost-editor-partner-article-links\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Robert Downey Jr.\u00a0bluntly rejected the idea that influencers are the future of stardom, calling it \u201cabsolute horse s\u2014\u201d and argued that real stars will still be defined by what they create.<\/p>\n<p>Downey Jr. said the rise of self-made online fame isn\u2019t necessarily a negative, but it does change what it takes to stand apart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNowadays, people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves,\u201d while talking about the rise of technology during an appearance on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FmcnCj-_uLA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Conversations for our Daughters<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I don\u2019t look at that as a negative thing. I just look at it as more like the challenge for individuation is being upped.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/07\/11\/why-robert-downey-jr-was-worried-about-playing-iron-man\/\">\u201cIron Man\u201d star<\/a> emphasized he hopes young people choose to learn and create instead of just chasing attention online.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Robert Downey Jr. rejected the idea that influencers are the future of stardom, calling it \u201cabsolute horse s\u2014.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Conversations for our Daughters \/ YouTube<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHopefully the grosser part of the youth of \u2014 let\u2019s just call it America for locality\u2019s sake \u2014 you know, is gonna say, \u2018Yeah, but that\u2019s not my thing. I want to go do something, I\u2019m going to make something, I want to build something, I want to educate myself and I want to have more inputs, so whatever my output is, it isn\u2019t just a self-aggrandizing kind of influencer-type thing.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I hear people talk about, \u2018Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,\u2019 I go, \u2018I don\u2019t know what world you\u2019re living into, but I think that that is absolute horse s\u2014.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Downey Jr. highlighted a part of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/tag\/influencers\/\">influencer culture<\/a>\u00a0that can feel like hype-driven self-promotion dressed up as something more meaningful.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The actor told the \u201cConversations for our Daughters\u201d podcast that he tries to avoid getting sucked into social media. <span class=\"credit\">Conversations for our Daughters \/ YouTube<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He gave an example of how his 14-year-old son was recently sucked into the new-age attention economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe kinda got caught up in this whole influencer thing, and next thing you know, it\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, if you like the way I\u2019m playing this\u00a0video game, do you wanna send me a donation?\u2019 And really, it becomes a religion,\u201d Downey Jr. said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo there\u2019s something about the influencers today are almost like the evangelical hucksters of the information age. At the same token, different because we\u2019re playing in this new territory and so it\u2019s a little bit of a frontier and I don\u2019t really have a judgment on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Downey Jr. as Tony Stark\/Iron Man in Marvel\u2019s \u201cAvengers: Endgame.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9Walt Disney Co.\/courtesy Everett \/ Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Downey Jr. backstage during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Downey Jr. said he personally tries not to get too caught up in social media<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>and doesn\u2019t want to be consumed by it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know like people say, \u2018Robert, they just love it when you\u2019re just kind of like seeming off the cuff, and they\u2019re getting a glimpse into your life.\u2019 And I go, \u2018But yeah, but I\u2019d be manufacturing that aspect for them.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it\u2019s \u2014 it\u2019s BS.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Downey Jr. began his career as a child after growing up with his filmmaker father, Robert Downey Sr. He saw early success with films like \u201cLess Than Zero\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2024\/03\/09\/celebrity-news\/robert-downey-jr-s-amazing-oscar-comeback-after-drugs-prison-stint\/\">earned an\u00a0Academy Award\u00a0nomination for \u201cChaplin.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Downey\u2019s career was derailed for years by legal troubles and substance abuse issues. His turnaround began in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n<p>Among Downey Jr.\u2019s most defining works are \u201cIron Man,\u201d \u201cThe Avengers,\u201d \u201cSherlock Holmes,\u201d and \u201cAvengers: Endgame,\u201d where his portrayal of Tony Stark reached an emotional conclusion.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/05\/01\/celebrity-news\/robert-downey-jr-slams-influencer-culture-as-absolute-horses\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Downey Jr.\u00a0bluntly rejected the idea that influencers are the future of stardom, calling it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/126764198.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}