“Nowadays, people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves,” the Marvel star lamented.

Robert Downey Jr. says idea that influencers are ‘stars of the future’ is ‘absolute horses---’

"Nowadays, people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves," the Marvel star lamented.

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Popsugar.

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May 7, 2026 2:47 p.m. ET

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Robert Downey Jr. in Los Angeles in 2023. Credit:

Charley Gallay/Getty

- During a conversation on how fame and celebrity have changed since his childhood, Robert Downey Jr. rejected the idea that influencers are 'stars of the future.'

- "Whereas, nowadays, people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves," the star said on the *Conversations for our Daughters *podcast last month.

- However, Downey Jr. acknowledged that influencers had become integral to the industry's efforts to widen the reach of promotion.

Robert Downey Jr. didn't hold back when sharing his opinions about the future of influencers in the entertainment industry.

During an appearance on the *Conversations for our Daughters *podcast last month, the Marvel star reflected on how fame and celebrity have changed since his childhood, and what the future looks like as the concept of stardom evolves. "In the late '70s, early '80s, dangerous though it was, there was this sense that the competition wasn't so stiff that you shouldn't even bother trying," Downey Jr. told host Bran Ferren. "Whereas, nowadays, people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves."

The *Iron Man* star noted that despite how it sounds, he doesn't necessarily view that shift "as a negative thing."

"I just look at it as more like the challenge for individuation is being upped," he continued. "Hopefully the grosser part of our youth is going to say, 'Yeah, but that's not my thing. I want to go do something. I want to make something. I want to build something. I want to educate myself.'"

Downey Jr. in Los Angeles in 2024.

Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty

The Oscar winner, who boasts an impressive social media platform with 58.1 million followers on Instagram, went on to assert: "When I hear people talk about, 'Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,' I go, 'I don't know what world you're living in, but I think that that is absolute horses---.'"

Downey Jr. recalled seeing his 13-year-old son, Exton Elias Downey, become interested in gaming streams, and how he briefly contemplated diving into influencer culture via his hobby.

"He kind of got caught up in this whole influencer thing and next thing you know it's like, 'Hey, if you like the way I'm playing this video game, do you want to send me a donation?' And really it becomes a religion," the *Oppenheimer *star shared.

He added, "There's something about the influencers today that are almost like the evangelical hucksters of the information age."

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But the actor wanted to be clear that he didn't feel that way about all influencers. "At the same token, it's different because we're playing in this new territory and so it's a little bit of a frontier and I don't really have a judgment on it," he told Ferren.

Downey Jr. acknowledged that influencers had become integral to the industry's efforts to widen the reach of promotion, which he's become more familiar with. He noted that he's met some professionally and gotten to know some who were "grounded, interesting, accomplished, cool people."

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As Downey Jr. prepares for his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in *Avengers: Doomsday*, seven years after his run as Tony Stark/Iron Man ended in 2019's *Avengers: Endgame* — which concluded with the billionaire tech genius' death by snap — the actor said he's working through his discomfort with social media visibility.

"I try not to get too deep down any rabbit hole," he said. "People say, 'Robert, they just love it when you're just kind of seemingly off the cuff and they're getting a glimpse into your life.' And I go, 'But yeah, but I'd be manufacturing that aspect for them. So it's BS.'"

He added, "But I remember Jon Favreau, when we brought the teaser for *Iron Man* to Comic Con, he was tweeting on stage and I saw the audience... This is the new hue where the audience is going to feel like they're on the steering committee of this thing. Okay, so that's the new landscape."

Watch Downey's full conversation with Bran Ferren above. *Avengers: Doomsday* is on track to premiere in theaters on Dec. 18.

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