It’s true across the board that if a celebrity became famous in the 1980s or 1990s, they pretty much don’t understand the modern social-media landscape, nor do they understand influencers or people who are famous-for-being-famous. Most of those ‘90s celebrities had to be dragged kicking and screaming onto Instagram, and I doubt many of them even manage their accounts. Very few of them are on TikTok or aware of the TikTokification of modern celebrity. I’m fine with all of this – I mostly lurk on Instagram and TikTok and I know that most of it is not “for” me and that’s fine. I imagine Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston feel the same way. Well, Robert Downey Jr. has some thoughts about influencers, social-media personalities and the importance of a celebrity’s online presence. His thoughts are… not exactly based in the reality of 2026.

Robert Downey Jr. recently appeared on the “Conversations for our Daughters” podcast and shaded social media influencers by saying it’s “absolute horsesh-t” to declare them the “stars of the future.” The “Iron Man” icon noted that “nowadays people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves,” adding: “I don’t look at that as a negative thing. I just look at it as more like the challenge for individuation is being upped.”

“Hopefully the [larger] part of the youth of – let’s just call it America for locality’s sake – is gonna say, ‘Yeah, but that’s not my thing. I want to go do something, I’m going to make something, I want to build something, I want to educate myself and I want to have more inputs, so whatever my output is, it isn’t just a self-aggrandizing kind of influencer-type thing,” the Oscar winner continued.

Downey himself has a sizable social media footprint with an Instagram account that has amassed 58.1 million followers, largely due to the legions of Marvel fans from his tenure playing Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Downey is returning to the franchise later this year as Doctor Doom in “Avengers: Doomsday,” in theaters Dec. 18.

“When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,’ I go, ‘I don’t know what world you’re living in, but I think that that is absolute horsesh-t,’” Downey said. “[My 14-year-old son] kinda got caught up in this whole influencer thing, and next thing you know, it’s like, ‘Hey, if you like the way I’m playing this video game, do you wanna send me a donation?’ And really, it becomes a religion,” the actor continued. “So there’s something about the influencers today that are almost like the Evangelical hucksters of the information age. At the same token, it’s different because we’re playing in this new territory and so it’s a little bit of a frontier and I don’t really have a judgment on it. I also know when I am promoting a film now I’ve gotten to know a few of these influencers, and I find many of them grounded, accomplished, cool people.”

Despite his own large social media following, Downey said he tries “not to get too deep down the rabbit hole” because “I don’t wish to be consumed.”

“I know, like people say, ‘Robert, they just love it when you’re just kind of like seeming off the cuff, and they’re getting a glimpse into your life.’ And I go, ‘But yeah, but I’d be manufacturing that aspect for them, so it’s B.S.,” Downey said. “But I remember Jon Favreau, when we brought the teaser for ‘Iron Man’ to Comic Con, he was tweeting on stage and I saw the audience… This is the new hue where the audience is going to feel like they’re on the steering committee of this thing. Ok, so that’s the new landscape.”

[From Variety]

“I want to go do something, I’m going to make something, I want to build something… so whatever my output is, it isn’t just a self-aggrandizing kind of influencer-type thing.” Not to defend influencers, but have you seen how hard influencers work? Have you seen the effort they put into their jobs? They’ve got high overheads (cameras, equipment, rentals, lighting, clothes, etc) and they put so much time and energy into creating content and trying to find revenue streams. I followed Olympic bronze-medalist Ilona Maher’s journey to stardom, and she talked about how lesser-known athletes were offered classes on how to make good/memorable content so that they could make a name for themselves and attract lucrative sponsorships. Maher has also said that she can easily spend an entire day making her TikTok videos. And she’s literally an Olympian!!

My point is that someone like Maher understands this new stardom paradigm, where people aren’t siloed into “okay, I have a REAL job” versus “I’m just an influencer with no talent!” It’s all part of the same exact ecosystem, and the younger celebrities HAVE to play the game. Younger actors have spoken about this endlessly too – that casting directors check to see how many followers they have, or they’re losing parts to some influencer with a huge following. Anyway, RDJ… just doesn’t get it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.