In a conversation for Conversations for Our Daughters, actor Robert Downey Jr. sat down with longtime friend Bran to talk about creativity, legacy, and the entertainment industry. At one point, the discussion turned to influencers and the growing idea that they represent the future of celebrity.
The topic came up as Downey reflected on how accessible fame has become for younger generations. “Nowadays, people can create celebrity without ever doing much besides rolling a phone on themselves,” he said. “And 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 because hopefully the grosser part of our youth of, let’s just call it America for locality sake, is going to say, ‘Yeah, but that’s not my thing. I want to go do something. I want 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 isn’t just a self-aggrandizing kind of influencer type thing.”
He then addressed the idea more bluntly. “When I hear people talk about, oh, the stars of the future are going to be influencers,” he said, “I go, I don’t know what world you’re living in, but I think that is absolute horses**t.”
Bran pushed him to expand on that point, sharing his own confusion about the influencer economy. “I don’t get it to a certain level,” Bran said. “Now, I understand an influencer when they have something to say and they’re interesting and they have a point of view and all of that, but many don’t. And they’re, again, it’s back to the old famous because they’re famous.”
Bran continued, “But it interests me that many of them have a million followers. Now, what does it mean to be a follower? It’s not like you’re paying $100 a month to be a follower. So it’s not hard to be a follower. When is an influencer about novelty? What is it that gets them on the radar screen of a million people? And then the question is what contribution are they going to make to the lives of those million people going forward?”
Downey responded by placing influencers in a historical and generational context. “When you’re the first of a generation’s version of this, it’s ours,” he said. “Like, my kids know that we didn’t have influencers per se. We had Ronald Reagan, who was in politics and on TV and doing whatever General Electric or Westinghouse commercials, and was an actor of some note.”
He also drew a comparison to the early days of podcasting. “I was listening to someone who had started a podcast when it was still on MySpace, back at the turn,” he said. “There’s something about that 2006, ’07, ’08, ’09 era. Sometimes it’s who is, luck maybe, first in the door to do it. Joe Rogan was doing it before it was cool and he’s kind of got his whole own space now.”
Downey connected the influencer phenomenon to his own household as well. “My now 13-year-old son, he kind of 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 want to send me a donation?’” he said. “And really it becomes a religion.”
Despite his criticism, he acknowledged a more nuanced view based on personal experience. “The influencers today are almost like the evangelical hucksters of the information age,” he said. “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.”
He continued, “And I also know when I’m promoting a film now, I’ve gotten to know a few of these influencers and I find many of them grounded, interesting, accomplished, cool people. And then you have, you know, all the associated jive that’s always around.”
