Back in New York with Robert Downey Sr.
Among the films playing in the series, which runs through Thursday, is Downey’s most popular feature, 1969’s Putney Swope, an eccentric comedy about race and advertising. “That was a film that nobody wanted. Nobody,” he tells Ebiri. “I think there was one distributor left who hadn’t seen it. A guy named Rugoff, who owned Cinema Five and all these theaters uptown. He said, ‘I don’t understand it, but I like it.’ He took the film and opened it in about a month in one of his theaters. Cinema Two. A big deal, and damn right. It sold out.” Downey also discusses a famously stolen shot in No More Excuses, his 1968 examination of New York’s singles scene, in which he strolls onto the field at Yankee Stadium dressed like Confederate soldier. “We had two cameramen, one behind home plate and one on the right-field line,” he says. “I was terrified, too. They took me downstairs. They said, ‘If you had gone near Mickey Mantle, you could have been shot.’ ”
Read the interview in its entirety for more insights into Downey’s fascinating oddball perspective, his recent run-in with Bill Clinton, and the theater-going experience in sixties New York. (And for more on Downey, check out another interview he did recently, for the Gothamist, which has more on his filmmaking process and his advice to this year’s crop of presidential candidates.)
