In-Depth Robert Downey Jr Interview For ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’

Robert Downey Jr reprises his role as the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law returns as his formidable colleague, Dr. Watson, in ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.’ Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room…until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large – Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) – and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective. When the Crown Prince of Austria is found dead, the evidence, as construed by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), points to suicide. But Sherlock Holmes deduces that the prince has been the victim of murder–a murder that is only one piece of a larger and much more portentous puzzle, designed by one Professor Moriarty.

Mixing business with pleasure, Holmes tracks the clues to an underground gentlemen’s club, where he and his brother, Mycroft Holmes (Stephen Fry) are toasting Dr. Watson on his last night of bachelorhood. It is there that Holmes encounters Sim (Noomi Rapace), a Gypsy fortune teller, who sees more than she is telling and whose unwitting involvement in the prince’s murder makes her the killer’s next target. Holmes barely manages to save her life and, in return, she reluctantly agrees to help him. The investigation becomes ever more dangerous as it leads Holmes, Watson and Sim across the continent, from England to France to Germany and finally to Switzerland. But the cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead as he spins a web of death and destruction–all part of a greater plan that, if he succeeds, will change the course of history. ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ is set for release December 16th 2011.

What was the challenge, in taking Sherlock Holmes to another level for the sequel?

Robert Downey Jr: After the first one worked out pretty good, we were doing the press tour and talking about things that we would like to improve and other directions we could go. And then, there was the reality of doing it. Anybody who’s ever been involved in making the second part to a first thing that worked, there should be a whole online support team – we happened through it (laughs). There’s so much to learn, and the greatest disguise was us disguising ourselves as consummate, by the numbers professionals, when in fact, we’re all incredibly eccentric. And Warner Bros has given us the opportunity to try to do something that’s complicated and needs to tick a bunch of boxes. The great thing was that this time we also had Noomi Rapace and Jared Harris.

What are the things you keep in mind, as you try to stick to the basics of Sherlock, but also make it different?

Robert Downey Jr: Well, really you just keep Conan Doyle in mind. I just respect the guy, more and more. Often times what’s required, particularly if you’re in any central position, is that you just have to let go of the things that are darling to you. You have to take the focus off yourself and put it on the shape of the scene, and the intention of what everyone else needs. You have to give people something to actually write music to, so that you’re not just running your mouth all the time. It was a democracy, in the truest, most frustrating and most rewarding sense of the word. Anybody could come in and say, “You know, I’m just not cool with that.” We’d be like, “Who’s that?,” and they’d say, “Oh, I was just cleaning the trailers.” It was nuts (laughs).

Everything seems bigger in this film, from the locations, the action, the ensemble cast….

Robert Downey Jr: Yeah, I believe, like a good Sherlock Holmes tale, you are kept wondering where it’s all going to wind up, and you are pleasantly surprised when you find out. It has got a good sense of fun, a good heart to it, it’s emotionally weighty. I think it’s the closest thing to a real Conan Doyle “Holmes versus Moriarty” story that has been depicted yet. That makes me particularly proud. In the time between the first story, Sherlock has just been doing research and snoopage (laughs). His dear fellow Watson has moved on with a real life of sorts. I think Holmes has done what he said he would do, re-open the case for Moriarty, and he’s probably wondering if and how Irene Adler is going to be caught up in that web of deception. I think he’s quite concerned, he takes it seriously. Everything is definitely turned up a few notches.

What was it like doing the first scene as opposite Professor Moriarty? Did your performance opposite Jared Harris grow, as you had more scenes together?

Robert Downey Jr: Jared would come in and we’d have a scene that we would be shooting in two days, and he’d be like, “Is this going to pretty much stay like this?” I was like, “Not a word of it.” He’d say, “Can I have something that I can study the night before?” I’d say, “I’m going to venture a no on the possibility of yes.” It would be like that. The stakes were so high, in every scene, and there were complicated camera shots. It’s pretty terrifying. What Jared kept pushing toward wasn’t personal, it wasn’t like, “I don’t want to be embarrassed. I want to do a good job. I want to come off great. I want great dialogue.” It kept going back to this archetype that he was trying to represent.

Everything Jared Harris did, in the course of making this movie, was essentially thrown at him with very little time to prepare. It was shock and awe. I think what he brought with him was something that was just so particularly him, while still being this character. It honestly is the main reason that the movie works, but it was also an exercise in trial by fire for him. He was really quite nice. Once in a while, he would say, “I really just beg of you, if I could even have a semblance of knowing what I might say, I guarantee you that I could do a better job with it because I wouldn’t be like you, for this long scene that you just wrote, wearing an earwig where someone’s telling you what to say, in the other room. I would actually know what I was going to say.” I’d be like, “Interesting. Yeah, everyone has their own process.” Guy told him that he wanted him to go home and come back singing a German aria, the next day. Nobody learns a German aria overnight, except Jared Harris.

Having Professor Moriarty in this movie, this adversary that hold so much ominous weight, that must be a lot of fun dramatically?

Robert Downey Jr: Definitely. I’d hand it to Arthur Conan Doyle that he’s referred to so often in this kind of….it’s almost as if he’s given authority in the way others describe him and the after-effects you see him have on other people. Dramatically that’s very fun. You see people dropping like flies as a result of the fact that this force of nature has been in their midst. Moriarty was kind of the first super villain in modern literature. It must just be an incredibly fun role to play, because the time you show up everyone must be mortified and thinking, “What’s it gonna be like?”

With Moriarty, I like that he’s not twirling a moustache, and he doesn’t have endless monologues that give away everything that was cool about him by saying what his plan is, he never tells me he’s going to kill me and then leave me there with a way to get out (laughs). And yet he’s a basis for a lot of those evil villains that I grew up watching, happily. I also think that what we were able to do was to really make him Holmes’ equal. Then you have Holmes being told by everybody, and really at a certain point by himself that he can’t beat this guy. I think we really needed somebody I could go toe to toe with, and enjoy that challenge, and that was the fantastic Jared Harris.

How was working with Jude Law and Guy Ritchie again?

Robert Downey Jr: First of all, Jude just has a work ethic that is beyond imagination. And he’s very open, he’s very very smart, and he thinks like a writer. There’s also something just so fun about him. We just wanted these scenes together really to feel like you’re looking at these guys, and you hope they never stop solving cases together. We don’t hang out a bunch, we see each other on set, we have this sort of ongoing meditation with these characers, we’re kind of like students together in a strange way. I feel about Jude the way Sherlock feels about John, I love the guy, we’re like brothers. The funny thing is that we have this very gentlemanly relationship with each other. We just show up and set up shop, work our asses off, tear through fights, work through scenes, and have this incredibly close relationship. Like good, I’ll speak for him, trained actors…and I learned it by proxy, you turn off at the end of the day and then you go back and do it again in the morning. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.

I think what Guy was really able to do this time was be able to concentrate a lot more on the details of what we were doing day to day, the story had kind of been taken care of. So there wasn’t a huge amount of work to do there. I can tell that he was really really giddy and happy about some of the text stuff that he was able to do, and to keep infusing this trilogy, at minimum, I’m imagining (laughs), with that Guy Ritchie style. In addition to that I believe he was really outgoing in trying to make it a collaborative process. He’s got a great sense of humour, which really comes in handy when the going gets tough. I just love the guy, I think he’d be hard pressed to do a better job than he did.

Noomi Rapace is also on board as Sim, this mysterious character, she also adds another dynamic to the story?

Robert Downey Jr: In Sim, played by the very glorious Noomi Rapace, we thought it would be nice to have someone, a character, who was both integral to the story, give us our female lead, and be really a dynamic that serves a bunch of different purposes. In her we have a character that we see as a gypsy fortune teller, but she’s actually quite a bit more. She is essentially the lynchpin of unravelling this very very complex case. It is more or less Sim that gets Holmes and Watson touring and running and chasing abroad.

We were kind of this interim space for Noomi; a big movie, a strong difficult character, very physical, very formidable, very emotional, very central to the story. Noomi is just such a great worker, she roles up her sleeves and goes, “Great, how can we make this better?” I was doing fight training with her early on, and believe me, she likes to fight (laughs). She’s great. She has a real warrior spirit. Whenever I pushed it a little, she lit up, from then I knew it would be a really fun ride with her. Then also there’s something very warm, thoughtful and spiritual about Noomi too, and that’s what we needed from the character of Sim.