Robert Downey Jr. walked down memory lane on The View with his Soapdish co-star and the ABC talk show host Whoopi Goldberg . The all-women panel welcomed the actor and congratulated him for his Oscar nomination for Oppenheimer. However, he quickly rolled back in time to recall his “off-track” experiences with Goldberg.
While they discussed his outstanding performance in Oppenheimer , moderator Joy Behar refreshed everyone’s memory when Downey Jr. received his first Oscar nomination for Chaplin thirty years ago (in 1992). The 81-year-old said, “You were so great in that role, but ultimately, you lost to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman ,” as per Decider.
However, the 58-year-old admitted that winning an Oscar then would have been the worst thing that year. He laughed at Behar’s statement and said, “Because I was young and crazy, and it would have put me under the impression that I was on the right track,” and quipped, “Whoopi remembers.” And the fellow co-hosts burst out laughing.
Goldberg added, “Well, we were on those tracks together.” Meanwhile, co-panelist Sara Haines chimed in, “That’s what I was going to ask about because you and Whoopi starred in Soapdish together back in 1991. Now I want to ask you, what do you remember about working with Whoopi?”
Downey Jr. responded, “I remember, as evidenced in this clip, that she is one of the all-time great scene partners. I learned a lot about keeping comedy grounded.” The Avengers star recalled the wild moments he spent with The View’s longtime moderator and teased a marijuana moment outside the film set.
He added, “I also have this vague memory of her and I and Anthony Michael Hall in a stretch Volvo rolling around New York City,” which cracked up Goldberg. Downey Jr. also clarified, “I’m not going to say whether there was a tiny bit of [ganja] involved. I’m just going to say that it was a wonderful evening.”
The comedian admitted, “It’s quite possible; it’s quite possible.” She also praised the actor for being as wild as she once was, “There’s nobody better to do stuff with than somebody who is equally as silly as you are,” recalling, “That movie is one of the great movies — I think that, for me, anyway — because everybody had a good time.”
“It wasn’t like a bad time. We were all together, and we were weird,” she clarified. “It was just a weird group of people, and we just had a good time and didn’t give a poop what people said about it. People didn’t seem to love the movie, but it’s now taken on cult status,” concluding, “If you wait long enough, anything is great.”
Meanwhile, he expressed his delight in Oppenheimer receiving not one or two but thirteen nominations . He said, “I was just so happy for all 13 nominations,” adding, “I couldn’t believe that it was Emily Blunt’s first Oscar nomination,” per PEOPLE.