Hall is “really proud of Downey, with whom he has “a long history together”
Credit: Gary Gershoff/Getty; John Nacion/WireImage
NEED TO KNOW
- Anthony Michael Hall reflected on his decades-long friendship with Robert Downey Jr. on Danielle Fishel’s Teen Beat podcast
- “Years ago when he was in trouble with the law, I spent a little time in the clink — so to speak — I went to visit him,” said Hall
- The Sixteen Candles star and Downey costarred on Saturday Night Live and Weird Science
Anthony Michael Hall has “been there for” Robert Downey Jr. through thick and thin.
During the Wednesday, Aug. 19, episode of Danielle Fishel‘s Teen Beat podcast, Hall, 58, called the Marvel star a “good friend” of more than 40 years, recalling working with him on Saturday Night Live and the movie Weird Science in the 1980s.
“I’ve been there for him,” the Breakfast Club star said of Downey, 61. “Years ago when he was in trouble with the law, I spent a little time in the clink — so to speak — I went to visit him. We just have a long history together.”
Credit: Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Downey, who has been sober since 2003, has been open in the past about his struggle with drug and alcohol addiction and what he’s called “years of dependency, depravity, and despair.”
In 1996, the Iron Man star was arrested and charged with drug and weapon charges. Following parole violations, he was sentenced in 1999 to three years in prison, serving a total of 15 months. In December 2015, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned Downey of the convictions.
The actor recalled spending time in jail in the late 1990s, telling Dax Shepard in 2023 that it was like “being sent to a distant planet where there is no way home.”
Hall told Fishel that after he got Downey an audition for SNL in 1985, the two costarred in Weird Science. Hall also wrote a script with Robert Downey Sr., the Oppenheimer Oscar winner’s late father.
Credit: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage
“He’s always been a good friend, and I’m really proud of his success,” Hall said, shouting out Downey’s wife Susan as “very cool. She’s instrumental in his great comeback.”
Downey has “had just a great career,” the Sixteen Candles star added. “And he’s a great guy. Despite all the great success he’s had, he’s a very real, very down-to-earth guy.”
In July 2024, Armie Hammer echoed how Downey has quietly helped others over the past several decades, saying, “Anyone in Hollywood who suffers from any sort of addiction issues — whether it be alcohol or process addiction or drugs — decides to get sober, that guy will find you, and he will help you. It’s amazing.”
Reflecting on his own sobriety since 1990, Hall said, “It’s a pressure cooker of a situation, to have success at a young age. Because it puts you in a hot seat… It was challenging to navigate all that but you got to keep it moving, you got to keep moving forward in life, you know?”
He added, “I pride myself on that sense of tenacity and discipline it takes just to keep going, you know, in industry, because there’s no guarantees.”
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Hall stars in Fox’s new competition series Nation’s Dumbest, and has S.W.A.T. Exiles and horror film Halloween Store among his upcoming projects.
Downey will return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the villain Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, which hits theaters on Dec. 18, and Avengers: Secret Wars, which opens on Dec. 17, 2027.
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