Robert Downey Jr. reflects on leaving Marvel's ‘cocoon' and doing ‘Oppenheimer'

Robert Downey Jr. is reflecting on his long and iconic journey with Marvel, which came to an end with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

On Thursday, the Iron Man star opened up about doing his best work at Marvel. But, Robert thinks his work didn’t truly get the recognition it deserved.

"I felt so exposed after being in the cocoon of Marvel where I think I did some of the best work I will ever do, but it went a little bit unnoticed because of the genre," he told Rob Lowe on his Literally! podcast.

When Robert’s Marvel career came to an end and his 2022 film Dolittle “just didn’t work,” he became “teachable.”

The 58-year-old says he "did myself a favor, because the rug was pulled so definitively out from underneath me and all the things that I was leaning on as opposed to what my understanding of confidence and security was, boy did they evaporate. And it rendered me teachable."

He reflected on how Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan reached out to him after Dolittle: "And the crazy thing is they say when the student is ready, the [Christopher] Nolan will come. I mean, the teacher will come. And that's what happened."