Robert Downey Jr.’s mother is not a main character in sirthe new Netflix documentary that has started stream today. Finally, the film focuses on the Marvel star’s late father, filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., who died last July at the age of 85, and Downey Jr.’s mother, Elsie Ann Downey, who died in 2014.
But while she couldn’t be physically present for an interview, Downey Jr.’s mother still gets a voice in the film. About halfway through the documentary, father and son fondly look back on their early years spent with Elsie Ann, an actress who has starred in many of Downey Sr.’s films.
At the request of sir Director Chris Smith, if he had learned anything about acting from his mother, Downey Jr. replied: “Pretty much everything, yes. Seeing that she was being guided by Dad, she devoted herself wildly to the creative stream of silliness he was on. She had no problem doing something challenging.”
Downey Sr. added that he put Elsie Ann Downey in every film he could. “She would do anything, she would try anything. She knew what to do.”
And that included the 1972s Greaser’s palaces, an American western that included a scene in which a 7-year-old Robert Downey Jr. had to star in a scene with his mother. (You can stream the movie free with ads on Tubi.) Downey Jr. played a boy who “had his throat slit by God,” as he describes it. But at the end of the film, the boy is brought back to life and mother and son meet again in a touching scene.
“He was so excited to do a scene with his mom,” Downey Sr. fondly recalled. Then the audience is shown an adorable clip of young Downey Jr. running into his mother’s arms.
Look at that tiny smile!
“fatter I was very proud of it,” says Downey Jr., now 57, in the film while on the phone with his father. “I was old enough to know I was there. And I’m starting to feel a bit like a movie brat. It was a good time. I want to thank you. It got us out of town. Was that a happy time for you?”
“That was it,” replies his father. “And then everything collapsed.”
Downey Sr. references his divorce and years as a drug addict that later led to his son’s drug problems, an issue both father and son openly discuss on camera. But even if things had to get worse before they could get better, they at least captured their happy — and endearing — memories on film.