Robert Downey Jr. has revealed that Kate Winslet once roasted him for having the “worst British accent” ever.
The American actor, who stars in Oppenheimer which is released this Friday (July 21), said in a new interview that the British actress roasted him for his accent efforts.
He recalled the time when he was auditioning for The Holiday (2006) opposite the actress years ago.
“We both got called in just as seat fillers… [director Nancy Meyers] needed someone to read with the gals and we’re sitting there going, ‘It’s about to happen for us,’” Downey told SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show recently. “And I was like, ‘I’ve got to have a better English accent than Jude Law at this point.’
He continued: “And Winslet said, ‘That is the worst British accent I’ve ever heard.’”
Downey Jr. remembers responding, saying: “I’ll check out now, but I’m taking the gummy bears from the minibar.”
The actor, meanwhile, has called Oppenheimer “the best film I’ve ever been in” ahead of its release. He plays Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan-directed film.
The upcoming biopic stars Cillian Murphy as scientist and “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Ahead of its release, Downey Jr. has praised the film as the best he’s ever been involved in, telling IndieWire at the UK premiere earlier this month: “Just going to flat out say it: This is the best film I’ve ever been in, and I cannot wait for you all to experience it.”
Nolan added of Downey Jr. to The Los Angeles Times: “He’s one of our great actors, and though a generation of kids know what a great movie star he is, they’ve not seen his subtlety and brilliance.
“I wanted to get him to do something completely different, to lose himself in another human being. When was the last time we’ve seen that? ‘Chaplin’? Directors are very aware of how talented Downey is, but because of his incredible energy that can punch through the screen, finding the right thing for him is difficult.”