Robert Downey Jr’s First Oscar Is Now All But Guaranteed Thanks To Impressive 7-Year Streak

Robert Downey Jr.’s chances of winning the 2024 Oscar for Oppenheimer have received a great boost from his recent Screen Actors Guild Award victory. The celebrated actor starred as Lewis Strauss in the Christopher Nolan film, which has earned 13 nominations at the upcoming 96th Academy Awards that will take place on March 10, 2024. Downey Jr. also won the SAG Award alongside the outstanding cast of Oppenheimer for Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture, while Cillian Murphy took home the SAG Award for Best Actor.

The SAG Awards indicated several likely Oscar outcomes, including Cillian Murphy’s Best Actor win, Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s Best Supporting Actress win, and Lily Gladstone’s Best Actress win. Murphy could be outdone by Paul Giamtti’s exceptional performance in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers at the Academy Awards. Emma Stone should also not be counted out whatsoever for her performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, which is widely considered one of the best of her career. Robert Downey Jr., however, looks like a heavy favorite for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

RDJ’s SAG Awards Win Makes Winning An Oscar For Oppenheimer Much More Likely

Robert Downey Jr. has been the favorite to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar since the start of awards season in early January 2024, but his SAG win all but guarantees his impending victory at the 96th Academy Awards. The winner of the Best Supporting Actor SAG Award in the past 7 years has gone on to take home the Oscar. Since 2010, 11 of the 13 winners of the Best Supporting Actor SAG Award have also won the Oscar in the same category.

The only two exceptions to this trend are in 2016 with Mark Rylance winning the Oscar and Idris Elba winning the SAG Actor and in 2013 with Christoph Waltz winning the Oscar and Tommy Lee Jones winning the SAG Actor. Based on this data, Robert Downey Jr. has a very good chance of taking home the well-deserved Oscar. Of course, nothing is guaranteed going up against the likes of Robert De Niro, Ryan Gosling, Sterling K. Brown, and Mark Ruffalo.

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Why Robert Downey Jr’s First Oscar Is So Deserved

Similar to the impact of Christopher Nolan’s potential Oscar wins for Best Director and Best Picture, Robert Downey Jr.’s Oscar win would culminate his entire body of work and his cultural impact despite the award recognizing his performance in Oppenheimer. As one of the best-known Hollywood actors in the world from his iconic role as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Downey Jr.’s Oscar win feels incredibly deserved considering all he has accomplished as an actor, even outside his outstanding performance as Lewiss Strauss. Remarkably, Downey Jr. and Christopher Nolan have never received an Oscar, but the SAG Awards success of Oppenheimer indicates that will soon change.

Oppenheimer

R

Drama

History

Biography

Oppenheimer is a film by Christopher Nolan, which follows the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man behind the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy will play the titular role, with the story based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

Director

Christopher Nolan

Release Date

July 21, 2023

Studio(s)

Syncopy Inc. , Atlas Entertainment

Distributor(s)

Universal Pictures

Writers

Christopher Nolan

Cast

Cillian Murphy , Emily Blunt , Matt Damon , Robert Downey Jr. , Rami Malek , Florence Pugh

Runtime

150 Minutes

Budget

$100 Million