BAFTA 2024: Robert Downey Jr wins Best Supporting Actor award for 'Oppenheimer'
Feb 18, 2024
London [UK], February 19 : Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr bagged the Best Supporting Actor award at the BAFTA Film Awards 2024 for his performance in the biopic film 'Oppenheimer'.
The award ceremony is currently underway at London's Royal Festival Hall.
In his acceptance speech, Downey Jr. took a walk down memory lane and shouted out "that dude" Christopher Nolan.
"When I was 15, I wanted to be Peter O'Toole. When I was 25, I worked for Richard Attenbourgh and Anthony Hopkins. When I was 35, I finally understood why Dickie thought Tony would be a better role model for me than Peter," Downey Jr. said. "When I was 42, I did two films for Guy Ritchie and learned how to make big Hollywood movies with a civil British flare. I then played a guy named Tony in the MCU for about 12 years," as per Variety, a US-based media outlet.
He continued, "And then recently, that dude Chris Nolan suggested I attempt an understated approach as a last-ditch effort to perhaps resurrect my dwindling credibility. So I share this with my fellow nominees, this has been an exceptional year."
Other nominees were, Robert De Niro for 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' Jacob Elordi for 'Saltburn,' Ryan Gosling for 'Barbie,' Paul Mescal for 'All of Us Strangers' and Dominic Sessa for 'The Holdovers,' as per Variety.
In the film, Robert Downey Jr played the role of Lewis Strauss in Nolan's biopic of the titular physicist (played by Cillian Murphy). Lewis Strauss played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb and later became a political rival of J Robert Oppenheimer.
The film was released on July 21.
The biopic, set during World War II, follows Oppenheimer, known as the "Father of the Atomic Bomb," during a period in history when he understood that testing the atomic bomb would ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world, yet he pushed the button anyway.
The film received a lot of appreciation from the audience.
Downey Jr. had previously won the best actor BAFTA for 'Chaplin' back in 1992, and was nominated for best supporting actor in 2009 for 'Tropic Thunder,' reported Variety.
