It’s kind of bizarre to look back on now, but after Robert Downey Jr. launched the entire MCU with Iron Man in 2008, he almost immediately followed it up by launching an entirely different franchise with Guy Ritchie – Sherlock Holmes, in 2009. And he managed to squeeze in an extremely rare Oscar nomination for a comedy movie role – in Tropic Thunder. And before 2012’s The Avengers really sent the MCU into hyperdrive, Downey fitted in another Sherlock Holmes movie – 2011’s A Game of Shadows.
While the Sherlock Holmes movies were a positive experience for Ritchie, Jude Law and especially for Downey – who has been trying to get Sherlock Holmes 3 made for some time – it wasn’t such a fun time for a particular extra on set. In 2011, Downey and Law appeared on the Graham Norton Show and explained what happened in one scene in A Game of Shadows.
Law begins; “There’s a scene where we walk into a room of carnage” RDJ continues; “There’s all these rubber bodies strewn around, like obviously fake dummy bodies that are in impossible twisted positions.” Law continues; “Robert leans over to me and goes ‘check this out, this will be really funny’ and he just stomps on this hand that was lying there and an extra shouts [in pain] ‘for the love of God!’ and sits bolt upright.”
Downey explains that the extra was typically British about it and said; “I can always say that I’ve had my hand stomped by the great Sherlock Holmes” Whereas; “In America, he’d be like: lawsuit!”
Downey Jr hasn’t acted in a movie since 2020’s Dolittle, but he appeared in the Netflix documentary Sr. which was about his relationship with his father – the experimental filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. RDJ will next be seen in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, and he hopes that Sherlock Holmes 3 will be happening soon, possibly directed by Dexter Fletcher.
Check out our guide to the best detective movies and the best adventure movies.
