Robert Downey Jr. has won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at the 2024 Academy Awards for his role in Oppenheimer, the first Oscar for Christopher Nolan’s latest film.
In Oppenheimer, Downey Jr. played Lewis Strauss, the former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission who masterminded the hearing that revoked J. Robert Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) security clearance. The past few months have been a banner award season for the star, who took home the Golden Globe, SAG Award, Critics Choice Award, and BAFTA for his masterful performance of Oppenheimer’s duplicitous former colleague.
The 2024 Academy Awards mark Downey Jr.’s first Oscar win, but he has been nominated twice before. In 1993, he was nominated for Best Actor for his role as Charlie Chaplin in Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin. In 2009, he picked up a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder — the sole nomination for the film — where he played blackface-wearing method actor Kirk Lazarus.
“I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order,” Downey Jr. joked to open his speech. He went on to thank director Nolan and producer Emma Thomas, saying, “Here’s my little secret. I needed this job more than it needed me. Chris knew it. Emma made sure she surrounded me with one of the great cast and crews of all time: Emily [Blunt], Cillian [Murphy], Matt Damon. It was fantastic, and I stand here before you a better man because of it.”
How to watch: Oppenheimer is now streaming on Peacock.
