Director Brutally Honest About Downey

Perhaps the reason that the personal troubles of Robert Downey Jr. have been burned into our collective consciousness is because of his unforgettably magnetic performances on screen. There's no two ways about it: He's arguably the best actor of his generation.

But after a conversation with Downey's longtime friend and director, James Toback, I'm convinced that it's a combination of Downey's on- and off-screen lives that ultimately makes him so fascinating to watch on film.

Toback, who was with Downey just two days before his last arrest in April, first directed the actor in the 1987 comedy "The Pick-Up Artist," and most recently in the 1999 drama "Black and White." But it's was Downey's indelible impressions in 1997's dramatic comedy "Two Girls and a Guy" that revealed the personal and professional complexities like never before, Toback said.

"I think there's a very direct relationship between his personal energy -- constructive and exploratory and even destructive -- and his creative energy, and I don't think he can separate them into a straight Downey and a non-straight Downey," Toback told me in a recent interview.

New on DVD, "Two Girls and a Guy" stars Downey as Blake, who ironically plays an actor with a complex personal life. He's got an addiction, in the form of two women (Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner) that he each loves individually. But this well-kept secret bursts apart at the seams when both women happen upon his apartment at the same time when Blake isn't home, only to discover from each other his two-timing ways.

But when Blake himself returns to the apartment, what ensues is anything but your typical, formulaic Hollywood love-triangle dramedy. Written by Toback with the actor's personal troubles in mind, the film hits its peak when Downey literally confronts himself with a profound stretch of dialogue, where he lectures himself in front of a mirror.

"Anybody who wants to know about his addiction or personality, it's all in that scene in front of the mirror in 'Two Girls and a Guy,'" Toback said. "There's never been a scene in the history of movies where an actor has revealed all his complexities more vividly than Downey revealed himself in that one scene. All of the elements of that movie are in that three minute scene."

Toback said the scene the still resonates with people today, and people remind him of it all the time.

"The scene has had a huge, strange effect on all kinds of people," Toback said. "I can't tell you the number of people in different areas -- to say nothing about the endless number of actors -- who feel an almost personal sense of connection to that scene. What it really does, is it gets to the center of this guy."

While Toback feels Downey was brilliant in such movies as the biopic "Chaplin" and drug-addiction drama "Less Than Zero," it's scenes like the mirror soliloquy in "Two Girls and a Guy" that make it stand apart from the rest.

"I think he does great work when he's allowed to go loose with it," Toback says. "I think his performance in 'Two Girls and a Guy' is the best anyone has done anywhere. I don't know of a better performance by an actor in any movie I have ever seen."

But while Toback feels Downey is on the mark most of the time, as a true friend, he also spares no feelings in pointing out what he considers his lesser roles.

"I think he was straight, totally during the making 'Two Girls and a Guy,' but he used all kinds of demons and wild things inside him to play that part -- and, he's a great entertainer, naturally," Toback said. "It's when he's closeted and straight-jacketed as he was in 'Ally McBeal' and couple other sitcom-like movies he did, then he's just another guy and nothing special one way or the other.

"But when he's really out there, he can hit a nerve with people. He's just so flamboyantly entertaining when he's out there on his own, like when he's on 'Saturday Night Live' -- his personality is magnetic."

Again, though, Toback is refreshingly honest about what he considers Downey's lesser works.

"I think he's very bad in movies where he's doing 'Ally McBeal' stuff, where he's just kind of indicating and sitcom acting. He doesn't know what to do when he is not allowed free reign and given something to work with," Toback said. "You've got to give him something to work with and let him fly. Then he's going to be spectacular."

Personal Troubles

Of course, you can't talk with Toback without bringing up Downey's most recent troubles with the law. And while Toback knows there are "troubles" with Downey, the "law" shouldn't have anything to do with it.

"I have the theory that Downey is sort of a white, movie star poster boy for law enforcement agencies," Toback said. "That way they can't be held accountable for locking up only poor black people for drug addiction.

"Otherwise, movie stars don't go to jail for drugs. Downey does. People say he is getting special treatment and he does ? he's getting special treatment but it's negative special treatment. He's the only person in his profession that goes to jail when he gets high, or locked up and forced to go to rehab."

Regardless of the way his drug problem should be handled legally, Toback is brutally honest about how he feels about Downey, the friend.

"I believe the guy is an addict and I believe he wants to be," Toback said. "Let's put it this way, he chooses to do what he is doing. There is no way after a number of times in rehab that this incredibly quick and intelligent person that has anything left to learn about the nature of addiction. It's not like he is all of a sudden going to see the light and be exposed to somebody else's point of view and wisdom. He's basically explored it all."

Where this exploration is going to bring Downey ultimately is yet to be seen. Toback believes the decision is up to the actor himself.

"The conclusion he must come to, whether it's conscious or unconscious, is that he wants to continue to get high," Toback said. "I think it's an outrage that he shouldn't be allowed to. I'm not saying he should be allowed to and nobody else should be, I'm saying the idea of locking somebody up because they want to get high is absurd, no more than it is if they decide to drink.

"There are certainly enough alcohol-addicted people who are hurting themselves who are you wouldn't think of locking up. You would say, 'As long as they are not hurting anybody, that would be crazy.' Would you want to put them in a maximum-security prison for a year because they continue to drink and behave a bit erratically while they are drinking -- that's out of the question."