Dashing Robert Downey Jr. Talks Drugs and Dysfunction in Vanity Fair

The ever-charming Robert Downey Jr. is Vanity Fair‘s cover story, looking dapper as ever in a chic (though vaguely ominous) seafaring Titanic-style setting. In the interview, Downey discusses family, addiction, dysfunction, and the baby girl he is expecting with his wife Susan Downey.

Downey speaks about his 20-year-old son Indio (with his first wife Deborah Falconer) who was charge with felony drug possession last month:

“He’s his mother’s son and my son, and he’s come up the chasm much quicker than we did,” says Downey. “But that’s typical in the Information Age; things get accelerated. You’re confronted with histories and predispositions and influences and feelings and unspoken traumas or needs that weren’t met, and all of a sudden you’re three miles into the woods. Can you help someone get out of those woods? Yes, you can. By not getting lost looking for them.” After a pause, Downey adds, “Pick a dysfunction and it’s a family problem.”

The interview also includes him talking about his extensive car collection, the “sacred brotherhood” of Marvel, his new movie The Judge, and how his “food weaknesses” (known as “guilty pleasures” for female interviewees) include ice cream, cheeseburgers, and Domino’s pizza.

But the most interesting quote (from the short preview of the story):

Talking about his time at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison and the process of returning to his old life, Downey says, “Job one is get out of that cave. A lot of people do get out but don’t change. So the thing is to get out and recognize the significance of that aggressive denial of your fate, come through the crucible forged into a stronger metal. Or whatever. But I don’t even know if that was my experience. It’s funny: five years ago, I would’ve made it sound like I’m conscious of my own participation in seizing the similarities. But so many things have become less certain. I swear to God. I am not my story.”